OTTAWA -- The eyes of the hockey world are upon us this weekend, as Ottawa hosts the annual NHL All-Star Game and the corporate love-in that goes with it.
The best players in the NHL will be showcasing their talents at Scotiabank Place for what will be an underwhelming game but an exciting event.
But, as we get ready for this, have you ever wondered how the All-Star Game got started?
For that story, we have to go back to 1933 and one of the most violent incidents in the history of professional sports.
Eddie Shore, one of the toughest men to ever play hockey – okay, one of the toughest men to ever breathe – was hit hard by Red Horner, and King Clancy, the longtime Ottawa Senator who had been sold to the Toronto Maple Leafs, took the puck and skated away. Shore was dazed, got up, and saw Leafs’ star Ace Bailey, who had filled Clancy’s position on defence. Shore assumed that it was Bailey, not Red Horner, who had blindsided him, and Shore hit Bailey from behind as hard as he could.
Bailey’s head hit the ice hard, and blood oozed onto the ice from his fractured skull.
Horner retaliated by knocking Shore out cold with one punch. He, too, lay on the ice across the arena from Bailey, in a puddle of his own blood.
In the Hockey hall of Fame’s Legends of Hockey series, Horner recalled the incident.
“The entire incident took place in a matter of two or three minutes,” Horner said. “You must understand that Shore was a terrific player, one of the best defencemen on the league, and that particular night he was on the offensive a good deal. He brought the puck down the ice innumerable times, and we usually checked him at the blue line, King Clancy, my defence partner, or me, and he became irritated by this.
“So this one particular time he came down and I checked him, knocked him into the corner of the boards. The puck stayed in front of me, and Clancy took it up the ice. Bailey dropped back into his place. That was our system. In the meantime, Shore picked himself up out of the corner and charged Bailey from a side angle so that Bailey couldn’t see him. I’ve always felt Shore thought he was charging me because I was the one who was giving him the most trouble.
“At any rate, he charged Bailey from an angle. Shore picked Bailey up like a ragdoll and turned him over in the air and Bailey came down on his head. He twisted Bailey in the air, over his right knee. Well, Bailey came down on his head, went into a convulsion, turned blue. I looked at him and I knew something was seriously wrong. Shore, in the meantime, had skated nonchalantly up the ice and had taken his position on defence. I said to myself, ‘he can’t get away with this.’ And I skated up and said to him, ‘You S.O.B. and I hung one on his chin. He went down, cut his head on the ice, so there’s blood flowing down there on one end of the rink, and there’s Ace Bailey at the other end. It was so serious that you could have heard a pin drop in the arena.
“The whole Boston team came at me with their sticks up, and our fellas came out to intervene. Then I believe everyone thought, ‘This is serious,’ and they stopped. They saw Bailey’s terrible condition.”
Bailey was rushed to the hospital in Boston, where a team of neurosurgeons worked through the night in an attempt to save his life. Bailey had two major surgeries, and his life was saved. However, he would never be able to play hockey again.
While Bailey was in surgery, his father was getting ready to come to Boston and settle a score with Eddie Shore. Bailey’s father had been listening to Foster Hewitt broadcast the game on the radio. When the incident happened, Mr. Bailey packed a bag – and his gun – and headed for the train station. He was heading to Boston, and his mission was to shoot Eddie Shore.
Word of Mr. Bailey’s trip and mission got out, and, fortunately, Leafs officials intercepted him before he was able to get at the Boston player. They spiked his drink, which knocked him out, and then they poured him back on the train and he was returned to Toronto.
Eddie Shore’s image of being the toughest and meanest man to ever play hockey – or breathe - was created that night. Shore was suspended from hockey for a month, but he would go on to become one of the most prolific defencemen in the history of the NHL.
Several weeks later, a benefit game was played for Ace Bailey at maple leaf Gardens featuring the stars of the NHL. It was the first ever All-Star Game in any North American professional sport. Close to $20,000 was raised for Bailey that night.
“I was the one who went down to Union Station and met Shore there, shook hands with him, and took him up to the hotel,” said Horner. “We didn’t hold a grudge. We never had any trouble. Bailey was in the hospital for five weeks in Boston. He never played again. He had to learn to talk all over again.”
And at centre ice, on the night of the very first All-Star Game, Ace Bailey met Eddie Shore at centre ice, and the two men smiled and shook hands.
It was one of the most emotional standing ovations ever witnessed in NHL history.
And now, you know the history behind the NHL All-Star Game that's in Ottawa.

Leafs vs. all-stars picture courtesy of the Hockey Hall of Fame.