The Subway Junior Hockey Series begins tonight in Drummondville, Quebec, the first of 6 games between the touring Russian squad and CHL players from the three leagues across North America.
The Ontario leg begins November 19th with a game at Barrie, a game in which Attack forward Steven Shipley has been selected to play in.
My favorite moment in this series occurred two years ago on the Attack bus.
Almost as a consideration, Attack forward Wayne Simmonds, like Shipley, was selected to play in one of the two Ontario games, the Thursday nighter although it escapes me where that game was.
However, Simmonds played so hard and played so well in the opener for the OHL, the impression he left them was obviously positive.
On a Sunday afternoon, as the Attack motored home from a game at St Catharines, Hockey Canada made a hasty call to the Attack bus and Simmonds was summoned to the front to take the call.
” Uh huh,….okay,…..yeah,….I think so,….thank you. “
The gist was that Simmonds was to get from the Attack bus in Owen Sound to the airport to be flown to Sudbury for the second game ,where again he’d make an impression, so much so that he advanced to the Junior camp, the World Junior Tournament and a Gold medal and within short order the National Hockey League.
The last time I spoke to Wayne Simmonds face to face was when he concluded his cell phone call on the Attack bus that day, but the sequence and story remain amazing years later.
Let the Subway Series begin.
I’m Fred Wallace