TLN’s All-Time Greatest Leafs Team: Al Iafrate

“A month after the draft Iafrate fell asleep at the wheel of his car on his way
home to Livonia, Mich.,
from a party in Ontario. His car flipped, he bruised all the ribs on the right
side of his body, and he was cited by police for careless driving. Less than
two weeks later Iafrate and three friends were arrested in Windsor, Ont., for
malicious mischief. The local papers reported that the boys had broken several
streetlamps by throwing rocks at them.
Now Iafrate is eager to set the record straight. ”What happened is that we got
into a fight with the bouncers at a strip joint,” he says. ”When they kicked
us out, we started busting up the outside of
the place, kicking in windows and stuff. They made it out in the papers like we
were standing on the corner whipping rocks.”

“When they separated, in January ’89 – their divorce became final 10 months
later — Iafrate took the better part of a month off from hockey. ”I needed to
get my life back together,” he says.
Especially hurtful was that Melissa had begun dating Gary Leeman, a Maple Leaf
teammate, after the separation. According to sources in Toronto, Iafrate
stopped attending team social functions when Leeman started showing up at them
with Melissa on his arm.

Meanwhile, in a damp cranny behind the visitors’ dressing room in Chicago
Stadium, Iafrate vented his disgust between long, angry pulls on a postgame
cigarette. ”We’re —- soft,” he said. ”They pushed us around tonight!”
After a few contemplative puffs, Iafrate judged his own performance harshly.
”I didn’t play well,” he said. ”I tried to do too much.”