All Star Weekend - Toronto 2024

We sent some of the crew out to Toronto a few weeks ago to check out the NHL All Star game for some work and play. Safe to say the trip did not disappoint! Violent Gentlemen's very own "dad" reflects back on his trip to share some of the highlights. Check it out! 

All Star Weekend just happened in Toronto and I figured I’d bring you on a little journey if you weren’t there.  I was lucky enough to bring my son with me again this year to Toronto (he was able to attend the Vegas All Star Game as well) so between Chris Glass, Hammer and the two of us, there were plenty of laughs, LOTS of coffee and we kept our mascot search in full effect for all three days.

After a red eye into town Wednesday night/Thursday morning, we got a quick nap and hit the Gretzky’s Basement pop up, Mitchell & Ness pop up and of course our Ebbets Field Flannels collab pop up.  It never gets old seeing VG product live and in person at retail.  I was blown away at the presentation and excited to see staff wearing our gear too!

While walking through the Ebbets x VG pop up, we were SO excited to also run into our friends at Oxford Pennant.  Dave and Brett took care of Mark (my kid) and got him dialed in with a beautiful (and custom) Bruins piece for his room. 

We hurried over to Scotiabank and watched the draft, some women’s hockey, met up with my friend from Tim Horton’s and made sure to make our way over to the Fan Experience to meet up with Stanley.

I’m sure we probably slept in there somewhere as well, but day 2 started early with some more Tim Horton’s and a trip to the Hall of Fame.  I had never been before and was absolutely blown away at all the memorabilia.  Our friend Stanley was there again, and Hammer got a quick pic before he had to start signing autographs again.  All in all, I could have been done here for the day – there wasn’t nearly enough time to see it all.  There were jerseys and sticks and everything in between from so many games I’ve seen and heard of and to see it all in one place was remarkable.  I can’t believe they change it out all the time too.

From the Hall we went to the skills competition and my mascot journey continued.   I was lucky enough to run into some long-time friends and meet some new ones. 

I really enjoyed the new format where you had to compete in a bunch of different skills events to get a winner.  I also was not surprised one bit to see Connor win the thing – I don’t care who your favorite player is, he’s THE BEST and was dominant.  If I had to change anything from it, I would love to have seen the goalies out there more – it would be fun to see them race, fun to see them get shot on more and maybe a little more “drama” when they were picked to be shot on. But overall, it was fun and exactly what the weekend is supposed to be – seeing player personalities. 

We hit the end of night party/dinner and met up with buds from around the league, ate some really tasty snacks and then got to bed super late (again) knowing the next day was going to be action packed. 

Saturday morning we actually had a couple meetings and then got back to playing.  We hit the All Star Game and I kept looking for mascots and enjoyed the 3 on 3. I FINALLY ran into Gritty but he wouldn’t stop so the pic was blurry.  That being said, it almost had to be - everything about him is chaos so getting a blurry pic seemed super fitting.

All in, I was lucky enough to get pics with a ton of mascots, watched some fun hockey and we capped it all off on Saturday night with dinner at an amazing restaurant, Sugo, with a certain NHL All Star from Anaheim and his whole crew.  

Knowing this is the last All Star game for a couple years, I’m glad we got out there to experience it.  The fan experience was great all weekend – there were so many parties and pop ups and shops happening and the feel of the city was so different from what we see in Orange County.