Matthews shows off a Marleau jersey for the crowd in San Jose

Before Auston Matthews stepped up to take part in his competition for tonight’s NHL All-star Game Skills Competition, the accurate shooting competition, he unveiled a little surprise for the home crowd in San Jose. He pulled off his own jersey to reveal a Patrick Marleau’s jersey underneath.

The crowd went wild to see their old hometown favourite’s name appear at the SAP Center again, even though Marleau himself wasn’t able to participate in this All-Star Game. With this appearance, Matthews ties Marleau for appearances in the All-Star Game with three, this being just Matthews’ third season in the NHL.

Here’s a video showing the unveiling as well as his performance in the shooting event:

The rest of the night wasn’t so interesting for the Leafs, as Tavares had a very mediocre showing in the puck control event:

The two Leafs were also mediocre in their appearances in the goalie competition for save streaks, with only Matthews able to put a goal in the net past Braden Holtby on one of his two chances, and Tavares missing both of his.

One can’t help but imagine this event would be more fun for us with the much-deserving Mitch Marner, Morgan Rielly, and Frederik Andersen representing the Leafs as well. But at the end of the day, this isn’t really about collecting the objectively best players in the league, it’s about putting on an event that will appease the fans of the game the most, and I think that for the most part the players selected were able to do that.

Tune in tomorrow at 9:15pm Eastern time when the Atlantic Division All-Stars will take on the Metropolitan Division All-Stars, and hopefully move on to the 10:45pm Eastern time championship game.