As a kid, I watched Toronto Maple Leafs games only when my dad and his buddies had it on the TV after their own hockey games. If people asked, I told them I was a Leafs fan, but realistically, I wasn’t all that invested in how they did (a blessing in retrospect, the early years of this millennium were a painful time for die-hard fans). There was only one weekend per year that I really paid attention to NHL hockey, and that was All-Star Weekend.
I loved seeing the players act like people, with smiles on their faces and helmets off, wearing capes or making saves backward in the skills competition.