Simmons Vs The OHL part2......Two stars, two courses...

Thursday morning was round two in the epic battle forming between Sun Columnist Steve Simmons and the Ontario Hockey League.

For the second time in less then a week Mr. Simmons has decided to use his forum (a column in a major Toronto tabloid) to lampoon the Ontario Hockey League.

In defence of Mr. Simmons the article Unnecessary Roughness was not the slag job of last Friday’s Apathy greets juniors. Mr. Simmons in his infinite wisdom even decided to try making a few friends amongst the OHL’s elite by sighting the tremendous job done by commissioner David Branch in attempting to "stay ahead of the curve"

The tone of Mr. Simmons latest offering is certainly mellow compared to early offerings but yet again Mr. Simmons seems to miss the mark. The Ontario Hockey League is an amateur sports organization and only as good as the people that support the product, it is not the NHL’s with all the glitz and glamour of a billion dollars in ad revenue. Simmons is a bully. Wow I never thought I would call Steve Simmons a bully but there it is, in bold print.

With millions of dollars exchanged daily, grown men and international recognition the NHL seems like a more adequate target for Mr. Simmons pen but in the name of not falling into the same trap of negativity, I digress . . .

Two stars, two courses

As play got under way in the OHL on Thursday two young stars were making headlines for completely different reasons. Sure fire first overall draft choice John Tavares (London) was making headlines due to an "upper body" injury that would keep him out of the London Knight’s line-up just day after being acquired by the Knight in blockbuster trade that witnessed the exodus of Knights Chistian Thomas, Scott Valentine and Michael Zador as well as 6 Knights draft picks.

The other future first rounder Matt Duchene (Brampton) was making headlines by wooing the crowd at the Powerade Centre with a quick assist, a knee buckling goal and a sixty minute effort that left little doubt that the young Mr. Duchene deserved to be the second ranked OHL skater going into the 09 NHL Entry Draft in June.

Zee