The previous year's YoungStars game and skills competition, which lead up to the main game, were criticized for the lack of excitement: the YoungStars game saw a lack of effort by the players overall, while the shootout portion of the skills competition was criticized for being too boring - in the previous year, at three different points in the skills competition, each goaltender would take on four opposing players in regular penalty shots - which in itself is not too different from what was seen in regular-season play.

Furthermore, the skills competition itself was changed dramatically - the Fastest Skater competition is now a sprint instead of a lap around the arena (a final showdown portion has also been added), while the traditional Puck Control Relay was changed to the Obstacle Course event, where stick handling, saucer passes, one-timers, and goaltenders attempting to score by shooting pucks the length of the ice into an empty net (itself a former All-Star Skills event called Goalie Goals) is featured.

The second shootout-based event, the Breakaway Challenge, incorporates elements from the National Basketball Association's All-Star Slam Dunk Contest: three players from each team (as selected by the all-star team captains) will be judged on their style and creativity by a panel of four judges as they attempt to score on a non-NHL goaltender.

The judging panel this year consists of Dominique Wilkins, a former two-time Slam Dunk Champion with the Atlanta Hawks, former Thrashers captain Scott Mellanby, Canadian actor Taylor Kitsch, and broadcaster Bill Clement.

39 – G Rick DiPietro (New York Islanders)[1] 33 – D Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins) 79 – D Andrei Markov (Montreal Canadiens) 4 – F Vincent Lecavalier (Tampa Bay Lightning) - (C) 11 – F Daniel Alfredsson (Ottawa Senators)[2] 17 – F Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta Thrashers)[3] 30 – G Chris Osgood (Detroit Red Wings)[4] 3 – D Dion Phaneuf (Calgary Flames) 5 – D Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit Red Wings) 12 – F Jarome Iginla (Calgary Flames) - (C) 13 – F Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings) 61 – F Rick Nash (Columbus Blue Jackets)[5] 29 – G Tomas Vokoun (Florida Panthers) 30 – G Tim Thomas (Boston Bruins)[6] 15 – D Tomas Kaberle (Toronto Maple Leafs) 44 – D Kimmo Timonen (Philadelphia Flyers) 51 – D Brian Campbell (Buffalo Sabres) 55 – D Sergei Gonchar (Pittsburgh Penguins) 8 – F Alexander Ovechkin (Washington Capitals) 9 – F Jason Spezza (Ottawa Senators)[7] 10 – F Mike Richards (Philadelphia Flyers) 12 – F Eric Staal (Carolina Hurricanes) 18 – F Marian Hossa (Atlanta Thrashers) 19 – F Scott Gomez (New York Rangers) 26 – F Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay Lightning) 71 – F Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins)[8] 91 – F Marc Savard (Boston Bruins)[9] 20 – G Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose Sharks) 34 – G Manny Legace (St. Louis Blues) 2 – D Duncan Keith (Chicago Blackhawks) 25 – D Chris Pronger (Anaheim Ducks) 27 – D Scott Niedermayer (Anaheim Ducks)[10] 55 – D Ed Jovanovski (Phoenix Coyotes) 9 – F Marian Gaborik (Minnesota Wild) 10 – F Shawn Horcoff (Edmonton Oilers) 11 – F Anze Kopitar (Los Angeles Kings) 15 – F Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim Ducks) 18 – F Corey Perry (Anaheim Ducks)[11] 19 – F Jason Arnott (Nashville Predators) 33 – F Henrik Sedin (Vancouver Canucks) 63 – F Mike Ribeiro (Dallas Stars)[12] 97 – F Joe Thornton (San Jose Sharks) W - Tim Thomas L - Manny Legace TV: Versus, CBC, RDS