On January 23, 2006, NHL CommissionerGary Bettman announced that the event to be held during the 2006–07 season would take place at American Airlines Center, home of the Dallas Stars.[1] The Stars were hosting an All-Star Game for the first time since 1972, when they were known as the Minnesota North Stars. The starting lines for both conferences were announced on January 9, 2007, and the full rosters were announced January 13, 2007.
The fan voting process had been revised so as to allow fans to vote for their favorite players as many times as they wished. This had created a humorous fan voting campaign around Vancouver Canucks defenceman Rory Fitzpatrick, urging many to vote him into the game as a write-in candidate, designed to show that the revised system would lead to ballot box stuffing, in an effort to get the league to change the system. Despite having no points in 18 games and one point in 22 games, Fitzpatrick had surprisingly accumulated 428,832 votes, good for second-place (and a starting spot) among the defencemen when preliminary results were released.[2] Reaction to the campaign was mixed—supporters of the campaign saw an opportunity to consider sending a hardworking but otherwise unspectacular player onto the all-star teams as recognition for their hard work, while opponents claim that it would take spots on the team away from players who generate interest in the league.
Among notable opponents of the campaign were Phoenix Coyoteshead coachWayne Gretzky[3] as well as Hockey Night in Canada commentator Don Cherry.[4] Ultimately, the campaign was unsuccessful, as Fitzpatrick finished third among Western Conference defencemen and was not named as an All-Star reserve. Slate suggested that Fitzpatrick had the requisite number of votes and that the NHL altered the results in reaction to ballot stuffing by an automatic script.[5]
New league-wide uniforms (Rbk EDGE)
Finally, the league chose to unveil the new Rbk EDGE uniform designs, which would be employed by all 30 teams in the following season. The new uniforms are designed to retain less water, potentially leading to less fatigue and improved performance. Similar designs have been employed in recent international hockey competitions. Critics of the new uniform design claim that the uniforms are more form-fitting than ever before, and that the new sweaters would not allow horizontal striping at the bottom of the sweater, a design that is a part of many current jerseys, including those of all six Original Six teams. However, some players have embraced the new uniforms, claiming that the new jerseys made them feel faster on the ice. The concerns over the striping would be alleviated with the league-wide rollout of the Edge system the following season, although several teams opted to go with non-traditional designs. In particular, the Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Tampa Bay Lightning would adopt new uniforms using a modified version of the template used for these All-Star uniforms. This year's All-Star design would be reused in the next game, albeit with some slight changes (including a running change to the Edge uniform's construction).
