Says the Intelligencer:
While he might wear an alternate captain’s “A,″ he doesn’t need a letter to be a true leader on this team.
Were you paying attention the other day when Detroit’s Anthony Mantha ran Flyers captain Claude Giroux’s head into the boards late in the Flyers’ 6-5 win at the Wells Fargo Center?
What would you expect to happen the following day in the rematch at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit? That’s right, Simmonds wasted no time dropping the gloves and getting in some clean shots on Mantha’s head.
That’s called standing up for a teammate.
The only reason Simmonds didn’t take care of business right away on Saturday is because the Flyers were in the midst of a four-goal meltdown and going to the penalty box only would have made matters worse.
Who do you think the media flocks to after a bad loss? Simmonds, because the guy tells it like it is. We’ve had some some good ones over the past 10 or 20 years — Kimmo Timonen, Mike Knuble and Danny Briere come to mind.
And don’t think for a minute the players don’t pick up on that. It’s all about the accountability.
Is Simmonds playing his final game for the Flyers on Saturday night?
He says he’s tried to focus on the task at hand. As he has already repeated a thousand times this season.
Yet he’s a realist, too.
“Could be a possibility,″ he admitted after Friday’s practice at Lincoln Financial Field. “I think up until this point, I’ve just tried to go about my business as normally as possible.
“I’m going to be thinking about winning the game, not whether it’s my last game or not with the Flyers. We have points to get for this playoff race and that’s all my brain is processing right now. All I can control is I’m a Philadelphia Flyer right now.″
