All Star Game
Ace Bailey faced the man who had nearly killed him - and for a moment no one knew what would happen.
Two months earlier, during a game at the Boston Garden, the Bruins' Eddie Shore took a run at Bailey and flattened him. The Leafs' winger fractured his skull when his head hit the ice.
For days he hovered between life and death.
Boston police threatened to charge Shore with manslaughter, and Bailey's distraught father boarded a train for Boston with a gun in his pocket, intent on killing the man he believed had killed his son.
Bailey survived, though he would never play hockey again. On February 14, 1934, a team of NHL All-Stars, with Shore in the line-up, played the Maple Leafs at the Gardens, with the proceeds going to benefit Bailey and his family.
It was announced that no Maple Leaf would ever wear Bailey's number six again - the first number ever retired in the NHL.
During the pre-game ceremonies, Bailey came face to face with his attacker for the first time. After a tense few seconds, he extended his hand, and the Gardens crowd erupted in cheers. There were hopes that the exhibition would become an annual tradition, to benefit injured players. But that wouldn't happen until October 13, 1947, when the first official NHL All-Star Game was played at Maple Leaf Gardens.
It was a rough night. Chicago's Bill Mosienko suffered a broken ankle after absorbing a hard check from the Leafs' Jimmy Thomson, and the Montreal defence tandem of Butch Bouchard and Ken Reardon mixed it up repeatedly with Toronto's Bill Ezinicki.
The game marked the first time Toronto fans watched through glass on top of the boards, which replaced the traditional wire mesh. Some complained that it dulled the sound of body checks.
-Stephen Brunt
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Toronto Plaques. Full page here.