Toronto Maple Leafs: All-Star Weekend Needs to be Re-thought

Only Auston Matthews and John Tavares will be representing the Toronto Maple Leafs at the All Star Game in San Jose this weekend.

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…