Things got tense is a postgame press conference after the Toronto Maple Leafs dropped their first game after the NHL restart to the Columbus Blue Jackets over the weekend. Leafs’ center Auston Matthews took issue with a question from Steve Simmons of The Toronto Sun. It wasn’t about what Simmons asked. Matthews was unhappy about an earlier report.
In June, Simmons reported that Matthews tested positive for Covid-19 while in Arizona. The information did not come from Matthews or from the Maple Leafs.
“First of all, it’s unfortunate I’m getting a question from you at this point, Steve. I just wanted to say that I didn’t appreciate the article you wrote about me a couple of months ago. I thought it was a bit unethical, to be honest,” he said before answering Simmons’s question about the game against the Blue Jackets.
Simmons later took to Twitter to say that he was not upset by being called out. In fact, he understands that part of what led to the exchange was there pandemic itself.
For the record, Simmons noted in his report that he received confirmation of the positive test from multiple NHL sources. Clearly the NHL did not see the information as private. Simmons also writes that he asked both Matthews and his agent for comment. Matthews may have objected to the information being reported, but the report itself could not have caught the hockey player by surprise.
