The parallels are too obvious to ignore, even if the differences are also pronounced.

As Bobby Orr watched his No. 2 Oshawa Generals jersey hoisted to the rafters at long last in a touching ceremony at the General Motors Centre last night, there was another player nearby who knows all too well what it's like to join a junior hockey club at the tender age of 14.

I'm referring to John Tavares, of course, the current captain of the Generals, who was drafted by the Ontario Hockey League club at that age and played his first game three days after his 15th birthday.

Nobody would be bold enough to suggest Tavares will go on to enjoy the type of career that Orr did in the National Hockey League.

Orr revolutionized the way the game was played, setting records and winning major awards at a dizzying pace with the Boston Bruins.

But Tavares will be selected high in the next draft, quite possibly first overall, and will have the pressure of performing in the league as an 18 year old, just as Orr did so brilliantly more than 40 years ago.

How long it will take Tavares to adapt, and how good he will be as a pro, remains to be seen. My thinking is it will take him some time to get up to NHL speed, but he will eventually become an excellent goal scorer in the mould of a Mike Bossy.

The comparisons to Orr as a hockey player are a little silly, considering they play different positions and Tavares is miles behind where Orr was as a skater.

But, off the ice, they seem to me to be quite similar indeed. Both have a pure love of the game, and a burning desire to be the best.

And both are reluctant to be in the spotlight. In this day and age, Tavares has almost no choice but to accept it, and he's done an admirable job of it. But you get the sense he'd simply rather play the game unfettered.

Orr was, and remains to this day, shy at the core. It explains why he was so reluctant to have this special day in Oshawa in the first place, as he always saw hockey as a team game.

Surprisingly soft-spoken in a media conference in the first intermission of last night's game, Orr accepted fault for taking so long to have his number retired.

When he was asked about Tavares, Orr of course said the kid can play, and could have played in any era.

But when he spoke about today's players in general, he said repeatedly the thing that frustrates him most is when they don't play to their highest level all the time.

One couldn't help but wonder if there was a message there for Tavares.

Ultimately, if Tavares is even to approach the status of Orr, he will have to find that level.