The 54th National Hockey League All-Star Game took place during the 2003–04 NHL season and was held on February 8, 2004, at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, official arena of the NHL's Minnesota Wild. The Eastern Conference defeated the Western Conference 6–4.

The city of Saint Paul in honor of the All Star Game being held built the Ice Castle for the first time in over 20 years at the Saint Paul Winter Carnival right across the street from the Xcel Energy Center.

The YoungStars game, featuring rosters composed entirely of rookies and some second-year players, saw the Western Conference YoungStars defeat the Eastern Conference 7–3. Anaheim's Joffrey Lupul scored a hat trick, San Jose's Jonathan Cheechoo picked up four assists and Colorado goaltender Philippe Sauve was named the Game MVP, stopping 18 of 21 shots. It is notable that instead of a regular 5-on-5 hockey game, the YoungStars game is played in a four-on-four format with each roster consisting of six forwards, four defencemen, and one goaltender. The game was played in three 10-minute running-clock periods and a four-minute intermission between each period.

The National Hockey League All-Star Game (French: Match des Étoiles de la Ligue Nationale de Hockey) is an exhibition ice hockey game that is traditionally held at the midway point of the regular season of the National Hockey League (NHL), with many of the league's star players playing against each other. The game's proceeds benefit the pension fund of the players.

During the 2010–2011 season, the NHL announced a change to the way the teams were selected, modeled after drafts in fantasy sports. The conference vs conference (East vs West) approach was replaced by a player draft, conducted by the All-Star players themselves, to determine the rosters for each team. The captains for each team now select players from a combined pool of both fan balloting and the NHL Hockey Operations Department. The change in format was a joint effort by the League and the National Hockey League Players Association.

In previous years, after November 26, 1917, the Eastern Conference All-Stars played the Western Conference All-Stars, where the "first team" or starting line, including the starting goaltender, voted in by fans, while the remainder of the teams' rosters are chosen by the NHL's Hockey Operations Department in consultation with the teams' General Managers. Since 1996, the head coaches for the two All-Star teams have been the coaches of the two teams that are leading their respective conferences in point percentage (i.e. fraction of points obtained out of total possible points). Prior policy saw the two head coaches that appeared in the previous year's Stanley Cup Finals coaching the All-Star teams.

An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league, except in the circumstances of professional sports systems in which a democratic voting system is used. The players are often chosen by a popular vote of fans of the sport and the game often occurs at the halfway point of the regular season, although this is not the case for some all-star games (such as the Pro Bowl). The method of choosing teams varies, but the selection is usually based upon geographical situation of the clubs or the nationalities of the players involved.

All-star games are played as though they are regular games, but since they present a special showcase for skills, they hardly play out that way. Coaches try to get everyone into the game (while constrained by normal substitution rules), with the players not exerting themselves as they would in a regular season game (to minimize the risk of injury.) In hockey, for example, there is no serious checking, while in football no blitzing is allowed. An exception to this rule would be the Australian Rugby League State of Origin, where physicality at a level often leading to on-field scuffles is fairly common.