Game 1 between the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers featured 56 penalty minutes with a large chunk of those PIMs accumulated when Wayne Simmonds and Tom Wilson fought late in the third period.
As the pair threw haymakers, it may have seemed as if they disliked one another, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, the two gritty right wingers are friends who often train together during off-seasons.
“He’s a real awesome guy off the ice. He’s played a huge role in kind of where I’ve gotten to.” Wilson said of Simmonds via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post. “You go home in the off-season. The in-season stuff kind of calms down and then you have time to reflect, and he’s always been there, in my workout group…
“He’s been kind of a mentor for me, but none of that matters right now. I’m sure he won’t be too happy with me, and we’ve obviously gone at it a couple times. That’s the beauty of the game. You can battle it out and leave everything on the ice, but then go back and kind of have a good relationship after the game. That’s what the hockey community’s all about.”
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The Capitals took Game 1 by a score of 2-0 but Simmonds, who led the Flyers with 32 goals this season, missed the final 6:51 of the game due to his fighting major and a roughing minor he got for the dustup with Wilson.
“I hope I didn’t wake him up there,” Wilson said. “He’s obviously going to be coming out in Game 2 flying like the rest of their team. They’re going to be chomping at the bit to get another crack at us. We’ve just got to be ready for it.”
No player has more penalty minutes than Wilson’s 486 since he broke into the NHL in 2013. Simmonds ranks 11th during that time with 319 PIMs, but a big difference between the two is Wilson has just 14 goals while Simmonds has 89 goals in that span. Wilson, 22, and Simmonds, 27, have many similarities but there’s no denying the Flyers leader has a more refined skill set and plays a bigger role in the success of his team.
“I think I can take a huge page out of his textbook,” Wilson explained. “He’s probably the best guy in the league in front of the net, and he almost single-handedly got them into the playoffs based on his power and his leadership. And so he’s the x-factor for them.”
Thursday’s tilt wasn’t the first time these two have dropped the gloves with one another. Back in November 2013 they went at it during a line brawl
