Ontario's Premier weighs in on body checking debate in the OHL
The Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, is adding his voice to the ongoing debate over whether the Ontario Hockey League will return with body checking next season. Lisa MacLeod, the Minister of Sport for the province, has been adamant that the league not allow checking on its return as a way to curb new cases of COVID-19. Apparently, Ford does not agree.
"We are engaging with the [OHL] to create a safe return to play plan, which will need to be approved by health experts," said Ford on Twitter. "To date no decisions have been made. I would like to see the OHL return as normal as possible with body checking."
On Friday, MacLeod announced that body checking and deliberate physical contact would not take place in Ontario sports amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Not just in the OHL, not just in hockey in general, but in all sports,” MacLeod said during a speech delivered to the Empire Club of Canada. “We're in a very serious game right now and the reality is we have to take those public health precautions.”
According to Ontario's “Framework For Reopening Our Province Stage 3,” a publicly available document released by the province that outlines best-practices for individuals and organizations during this stage of Ontario's pandemic response, “prolonged or deliberate contact while playing sports” is not permitted.
Fans are, unsurprisingly, not to pleased with any notion of a league returning without body checking involved, especially one aimed at preparing players to play in the NHL.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| William Nylander | 3 | - | 3 | |
| Dylan Guenther | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Alex Tuch | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Nic Dowd | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Connor McDavid | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Mikhail Sergachev | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Auston Matthews | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Jack Hughes | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Shane Wright | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Sam Bennett | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Bowen Byram | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Macklin Celebrini | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jake Debrusk | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Leon Draisaitl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Matthew Knies | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Andrew Mangiapane | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Aliaksei Protas | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Ivan Provorov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 54 | 37 | 14 | 3 | 77 | |
Capitals | 52 | 34 | 11 | 7 | 75 | |
Stars | 52 | 34 | 17 | 1 | 69 | |
Oilers | 52 | 32 | 16 | 4 | 68 | |
Hurricanes | 53 | 32 | 17 | 4 | 68 | |
Golden Knights | 53 | 31 | 16 | 6 | 68 | |
Panthers | 54 | 32 | 19 | 3 | 67 | |
Wild | 53 | 31 | 18 | 4 | 66 | |
Maple Leafs | 52 | 31 | 19 | 2 | 64 | |
Avalanche | 54 | 31 | 21 | 2 | 64 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||