2017 NHL All-Star Game preview: Time, format, TV schedule and how to watch online

The NHL100 festivities celebrating the greatest players are over, the skills competition has done its thing, now All-Star weekend concludes Sunday with a round-robin three-on-three tournament with the squads representing all four divisions.

Since the Atlantic won last night’s skills competition, they got to pick their time slot and opponent. They chose their Eastern Conference siblings, the Metropolitan Division (with New York Islanders center John Tavares), and the later time slot.

That means if they win, they play right away again in the final rather than sitting around watching the Central vs. Pacific game.

How to Watch

Coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. EST / 12:30 p.m. PST. You can watch the event on NBC in the U.S. and on CBC, Sportsnet, and TVA Sports in Canada. Live streams are at NBCSN.com and CBC.com.

All-Star Tournament Semifinal #1

Central vs. Pacific, 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT

All-Star Tournament Semifinal #2

Atlantic vs. Metropolitan, 4:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 p.m. PT

All-Star Tournament Final

[Winner of Central vs. Pacific] vs. [Winner of Atlantic vs Metropolitan] 5:30 p.m. ET / 2:30 p.m. PT

How It Goes

If you missed last year’s event, the first year where they used three-on-three, it does make for more real competition. Sure, 3-on-3 isn’t exactly hockey as we know it in a structured format, but the skills and thinking involved sure are.

At nhl.com, some of the players elaborated:

"You can look really foolish if you don't give it a hundred percent out there," said Drew Doughty, a member of the Pacific Division team. "You can't hide on the ice at 3-on-3, so you're going to have to be giving it the whole time and that causes us to play hard and put on a good show for the fans and the NHL."

And this: No floating around:

"You have to go back and forth, back and forth and you have to play with your guy," said Washington Capitals captain and Metropolitan Division forward Alex Ovechkin, who did not play in Nashville last season because of an injury. "It's not like circling around, [having] fun and smiling. You have to work."

Rosters

Central Division

P.K. Subban (Captain)
Mark Scheifele
Patrick Kane
Vladimir Tarasenko
Patrik Laine
Tyler Seguin
Nathan MacKinnon
Ryan Suter
Duncan Keith
Devan Dubnyk
Pekka Rinne

Pacific Division

Connor McDavid (Captain)
Joe Pavelski
Jeff Carter
Ryan Getzlaf
Bo Horvat
Michael Frolik
Brent Burns
Drew Doughty
Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Cam Talbot
Martin Jones

Metropolitan Division

Sidney Crosby (Captain)
Alex Ovechkin
Wayne Simmonds
Jeff Skinner
Kevin Hayes
John Tavares
Ryan McDonagh
Zach Werenski
Kris Letang
Sergei Bobrovsky
Cory Schneider

Atlantic Division

Carey Price (Captain)
Nikita Kucherov
Jonathan Marchessault
Auston Matthews
James van Riemsdyk
Brad Marchand
Frans NielsenShea Weber
Erik Karlsson
Rasmus Ristolainen
Tuukka Rask