It's nearly 80 years since Eddie Shore took down Irvine "Ace" Bailey with a slew foot, ending Bailey's NHL career and nearly ending his life.
And that's how the NHL All-Star Game was born.
The idea was surely already percolating - the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game had been played the previous summer.
But Shore's cheap shot and Bailey's brain surgery quickened the agenda.
Two months after the incident, on February 14, 1934, the NHL staged the Ace Bailey Benefit Game.
The Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs hosted a team of "All-Stars" from the rest of the league, with Bailey in attendance to present the jerseys and shake hands with everyone - including Eddie Shore.
Other benefit games followed, in the wake of other tragedies, before the All-Star showcase was adopted as an annual event in 1947.
Continue reading...
- The History of the NHL All-Star Game
- Results of the NHL All-Star Game Since 1934
- Complete List of NHL All Star Game MVPs
Photo: Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux were linemates at the 1997 NHL All Star Game in San Jose. (Glenn Cratty/Getty Images).
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