Who's in and who's out

Jaromir Jagr is expected to be here for the festivities. Whether he competes or not still is not definite. NHL spokesperson Frank Brown said late Friday afternoon that Jagr had not notified the league that he would not be here. There have been conflicting reports as to the severity of his thumb injury and even Jagr himself said recently that he was unsure of his All-Star status. Fresh off a rib injury and with the broken digit to boot, it was rumored that he would take a rain check for the third time in his career.

Colorado's Peter Forsberg is definitely out with a concussion; as is Nashville defenseman Miko Timmonen with a broken arm. New Jersey's Patrik Elias will take Forsberg's spot, but Timmonen's spot won't be filled.

Dominik Hasek finally announced that he will not play, relinquishing his spot to Roman Turek. Al MacInnis is back in for the North Americans, but St. Louis teammate Pierre Turgeon is out. He will be replaced by Florida's Ray Whitney, who should have been a selection to begin with.

Chicago forward Tony Amonte found you can have a birth and accept a berth all at the same time. Amonte's wife, Laurie, was due to deliver their second child on Sunday, the same day her husband was due to skate with the All-Stars. But the couple decided to induce early, delivering a boy, Tristan, on Tuesday. Tony played Wednesday against the Oilers and will indeed be in Toronto this weekend.

Al MacInnis also will be in Toronto, toughing out a collapsed lung that threatened to prevent him from defending his hardest shot title. MacInnis returned from a five-game layoff and played 20 minutes in St. Louis' 5-2 victory at Vancouver on Thursday night. "I had no problems," MacInnis said. "Coming back tonight, there wasn't any rush to see if I could play this weekend. This was a timeframe the doctor put on it, and he saw no reason for me not to play."

It's good to know that sometimes the right things happen on their own sometimes. While everybody begrudgingly gave into the idea that Dominik Hasek should play in the All-Star Game despite having only one victory in an injury-plagued season, nobody put up much of an argument when he announced Thursday that he wouldn't be able to play because of his nagging groin injury. Having been voted in by fans gave Hasek a legitimate reason to want to accept the assignment (even though it has been suggested that an endorsement deal played a bigger role), but there's no question that Roman Turek of the St. Louis Blues was more deserving.

Turek is only leading all non-North American goalies in goals, goals-against average and save percentage. He was legitimately peeved when a) the fans voted Hasek in over him; and b) when Olaf Kolzig and Tommy Salo were selected as the reserves. Now he just better not give up six or seven goals this weekend.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh? Players from the inaugural All-Star Game in 1947 hopped on a streetcar for a quick buzz around Church and Carlton streets before getting together on the Maple Leaf Gardens ice for a photo op Thursday afternoon. Though that was 53 years ago, this is indeed the 50th All-Star Game because of various cancellations or substitutions through the years.

In that first game, the defending champion Toronto Maple Leafs lost 4-3 to a team of all-stars, which got third period goals from Maurice Richard and Doug Bentley. It wasn't the carefree no-defense game we see these days. In fact, Maple Leafs coach Conn Smythe thought it to be "every bit as important as a Stanley Cup game," according to former Leafs great Teeder Kennedy.

Despite the most obvious changes in the game over the last 53 years, former Boston star Milt Schmidt says the biggest difference is the loss of familiarity in a 28-team (soon to be 30) league. "There were six teams and nobody wore helmets so fans knew everybody and you knew what line you would play against on every team," said Schmidt, 81, who said he received no money and didn't even get to keep his jersey for that all-star appearance.

In 1947, Toronto was the largest city in Canada with a population of 667,457. Today it is 2.4 million. Only 16.5 percent of Ontario residents even had a phone in their house 53 years ago and sporting events still were prohibited on Sundays.

A group of 180 hockey players set a Guinness record this week by playing pick-up hockey for 72 consecutive hours in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square. Mayor Mel Lastman dropped the first puck at 8 a.m. Monday, and when the final whistle blew at 8 a.m. Thursday the final score was White 380, Blue 340. Still waiting for the first quote out of the Blue side saying, "If only we had a few more minutes, I think we could have caught them."

Two teams of 90 were split into 18-player squads. The final two squads played for 19 straight hours.

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