The New York Islanders will be hosting the 2027 National Hockey League All-Star Game according to the Canadian Press on Wednesday. The game will take place at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York the weekend of February 5-7, 2027.
UBS Arena was initially scheduled to host the 2026 NHL All-Star Game. However, there will be no All-Star Game this season as the world’s best players are playing at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo this February. This will be the first time since the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi that the NHL is stopping its season for the biggest multi-sporting event in the world. The NHL decided not to attend the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang (won by the Olympic Athletes from Russia), and the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing (won by Finland). By not attending the two Olympic Games on the Asian continent, the NHL missed a grand opportunity to market their product in a region that has not had exposure to best-on-best hockey since the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano.
No Send-Off event
There had been some speculation that UBS Arena would host a special Send-Off event in February prior to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo. That will not be the case. The last scheduled NHL regular season game prior to the Olympic tournament will be on February 5 when the Vegas Golden Knights host the Los Angeles Kings. The Olympic tournament then starts February 11 with Slovakia playing Finland in Milan. Like Finland, Slovakia won a medal at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, as they won bronze.
Look back at the 1983 NHL All-Star Game
The New York Islanders have hosted the NHL All-Star Game once before. That was the 35th NHL All-Star Game at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on February 8, 1983. The game took place during the Islanders dynasty as 1983 was the fourth straight year they won the Stanley Cup.
The Campbell Conference actually smoked the Wales Conference by a score of 9-3. The star of the game was Wayne Gretzky, as the Great One scored four goals in the last 10 minutes. According to Joshua Rey of Fansided, it was first voted on that the 1983 NHL All-Star Game MVP would go to Vancouver Canucks goaltender John Garrett. Then Gretzky dominated the last sixth of the game, and won the MVP easily on a revote.
