There are seven of us in the All Stars

America will fight against the rest of the world

On February 1-2, Los Angeles will host a traditional star weekend, during which its main event will take place - the 52nd NHL All Stars match. It will be the fifth time in history that the teams of North America and the rest of the world will meet. The latter will feature seven of our stars.

As you know, for many years now the league leadership has been selecting a huge number of hockey players from both sides, and from among them, fans all over the planet vote to select the starting lineups of both teams - one goalkeeper and center forward, two defenders and wingers.

There were 17 of our hockey players on the list of people from the Old World, but only two of them achieved the high right to go on the ice at Staples Center on Saturday from the first minutes of the match. These are Latvian defender Sandis Ozolins, who recently moved from Carolina to Florida, and Russian center forward of Detroit Sergei Fedorov.

The rest of the participants in the star-studded meeting were selected by the head coaches of the national teams, from the North Americans Pat Quinn from Toronto, and from the Europeans Scotty Bowman, who heads the same Red Wings. The famous Scotty eventually added five more Russian masters to Fedorov and Ozolins - goalkeeper Nikolai Khabibullin (Tampa Bay), defenders Sergei Gonchar (Washington) and Alexei Zhitnik (Buffalo) and center forwards Alexei Yashin (Islanders) ) and Alexey Zhamnov (“Chicago”).

In total, in addition to six Russians and one Latvian, five more Czechs, four Swedes, two Finns and Slovaks and one Norwegian are preparing to defend the hockey honor of the Old World. Don't be surprised by the latter's presence. The fact is that the other day Finnish forward Jera Lehtinen from Dallas underwent knee surgery, and he had to be urgently replaced by one of the Columbus leaders, Espen Knutsen, who will become the first Norwegian in NHL history to take part in All Stars show.

The North Americans also have replacements. Instead of center Eric Lindros (Rangers), who injured his knee, his teammate Mike York will go to Hollywood, and New Jersey defenseman Brian Rafalski, who has a similar injury, will be replaced by the experienced Chris Chelios (Detroit). He is the most titled star player - Saturday's match will be his 11th!

On Friday, for the first time in NHL history, there will first be a meeting of the most talented young hockey players, including two Russians - Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta) and Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit), and then the luminaries themselves will take to the ice, and they will have to compete in various components of hockey skill - in competitions called “SuperSkills Competition”.

Eastern Conference I V N P PO S O

1. Philadelphia	53	31	6	14	2	164-121	70
2. Boston	54	29	3	15	7	158-133	68
3. Toronto	54	28	5	17	4	159-135	65
4. Ottawa	53	27	6	17	3	163-130	63
5. "Carolina"	57	23	10	19	5	153-165	61
6. Islanders	52	26	5	18	3	150-143	60
7. Rangers	55	25	4	23	3	155-167	57
8. "New Jersey"	53	23	7	20	3	132-129	56
9. Montreal	54	22	8	21	3	143-146	55
10. Pittsburgh	53	22	5	23	3	126-149	52
11. Buffalo	53	22	5	25	1	141-138	50
12. "Washington"	55	20	8	26	1	147-171	49
13. Tampa	53	19	5	27	2	102-127	45
14. "Florida"	53	16	4	30	3	107-159	39
15. "Atlanta"	53	13	6	30	4	125-190	36

Western Conference I V N P PO S O

1. Detroit	54	36	6	10	2	170-117	80
2. "Chicago"	56	30	9	17	0	154-145	69
3. St. Louis	53	29	6	15	3	151-118	67
4. "Colorado"	55	30	6	18	1	141-116	67
5. San Jose	53	26	7	17	3	155-135	62
6. Edmonton	56	25	9	20	2	142-131	61
7. "Los Angeles"	53	25	7	19	2	143-122	59
8. "Dallas"	52	24	6	18	4	141-140	58
9. Vancouver	56	26	5	24	1	166-146	58
10. Phoenix	52	22	7	19	4	127-134	55
11. Calgary	53	22	8	21	2	126-139	54
12. "Nashville"	54	20	9	25	0	136-144	49
13. Minnesota	54	17	9	24	4	126-156	47
14. Anaheim	57	19	6	29	3	125-139	47
15. "Columbus"	53	14	7	31	1	107-150	36

Valery KONSTANTINOV