41st National Hockey League All-Star Game
To accommodate the altered activities, the game itself was played on a Sunday afternoon instead of a Tuesday night, as was the case in previous years.This allowed American broadcaster NBC to air the game live across the United States – marking the first time that a national audience would see Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux play.[1][2][3] Finally, NBC was allowed to conduct interviews with players during stoppages in play, to the chagrin of the Hockey Night in Canada crew, whose attempts to do likewise were repeatedly denied by the league in past years.Among the notable absences of this game, however, was Gordie Howe, who had proposed a similar idea four years earlier in Hartford, but was rebuked by the league.The Super Skills competition was created by Paul Palmer, who adapted the "Showdown" feature seen on Hockey Night in Canada from 1973 to 1980.