The Philadelphia Flyers split up their training camp roster for a pair of preseason games Monday night. Wayne Simmonds was with the squad taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs in London, Ont., while the other squad was back home in Philadelphia for a preseason tilt against the Washington Capitals. Both games got rather feisty. You’d have to expect that two Flyers teams might be more dangerous than one.
Though there were multiple fights in the game against the Capitals in Philadelphia -- perhaps stemming from some leftover bad blood from last season (remember Ray Emery on Braden Holtby?) -- Simmonds gets the headline because he got himself tossed from the game.
Simmonds bumped Maple Leafs defenseman Korbinian Holzer after a late whistle. Holzer didn’t like that, so he shoved back. Within seconds Simmonds had his gloves off and with two punches put Holzer to the ice.
Since Holzer didn’t have a chance to defend himself in the scrap, Simmonds may have gotten an instigator. There was no official box score available of the game to confirm the official penalty.
After the contest, Holzer addressed the altercation with a little bit of humor. From David Alter (via Broad Street Hockey):
He shoved me from behind into the boards after the whistle, so. You don't have to take everything, it doesn't matter who it is. I think a little push back doesn't hurt. Obviously I've got glue in my gloves. It always takes a little bit of time before I take them off.
Meanwhile, back in Philadelphia, there were five fights between the Flyers and Capitals including an end-of-period scrum that also led to fisticuffs between Philly's Blair Jones and Washington's Steven Oleksy. That was actually Jones’ second fight of the night.
Brayden Schenn was also among the pugilists in Philadelphia on Monday night. Between him and Simmonds, the Flyers are used to seeing those two guys drop the gloves, but considering just how important both have been and are going to be this season, maybe the preseason isn't the best time to be doing that.
