When Wayne Simmonds was a member of the LA Kings he was nearly inseparable from roommate Drew Doughty. While their off-ice friendship has remained intact since since a June 2011 trade, the Canadian duo have had to continue their respective careers on different coasts. Now, with the Flyers in town to take on the Kings once again, it was only natural that one of Philadelphia’s favorite sons was on Doughty’s mind following practice…
Doughty on Simmonds:
“As much as I enjoy seeing him out there and playing against him, you don’t like playing against a guy like Wayne. He’s extremely hard to play against. As a defenseman, he’s gonna run you through the boards legally every chance he gets. When he’s in front of the net, he’s gonna make it hard for you to move him because he plays so hard down there. It’s never fun playing against Wayne. If you watch us as good as friends as we are we go even harder against each other on the ice. We are similar in many ways. When it comes to hockey, we have the exact same passion and competition for the game and that’s what makes me and Wayne good players in the NHL.”
On who is the better trash talker:
“I would think I am the better talker, but he has the same chirp that no one can do anything about and that’s, ‘I’ll beat the crap out of you!’ He can basically beat the crap out of everyone in the league. I wish I had that chirp to back myself up, but I can’t use that one. Wayne is a special player, a leader, and we need to get him off his game as quickly as we can in the first period.”
[After talking about going to dinner with Simmonds while the Flyers are in town] – On Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella making comments last week about how players are too friendly on and off the ice; eliminating the ‘hate’ that was once there for opponents:
“I didn’t know he said that, but that’s not true. I think everyone can see how much I hate guys out there, so that is not true. The bottom line is that it’s a good game with a lot of good people and you are going to make friends. But if you can’t put it aside when you get on the ice that is your own issue. I don’t agree with Torts.”
On the recent return of Dustin Brown:
“It really makes a difference in the room before the game. We have a lot of veteran guys on the back-end that have great leadership, and stuff like that, and we have a lot of vets up front, as well. But we also have more young guys up front and you can preach as much as you want from the back-end in the dressing room before the games, but the bottom line is you need that guy on the bench, in addition to Carts (Jeff Carter) and Kopi, that can help lead our team. There is just a different aura when you have Brownie in the room. He just brings a calmness to the room and there was just something truly different in the room before that game (Sunday vs Rangers) that I knew we would win that game, it was weird. The other thing to, is that Brownie brings that LA Kings mentality that we’ve been lacking; that physical game that hard working game, get to the net game. Play hard in front of the net; you saw him do that immediately. He was effective in the first period. That physical aspect is something that we have been lacking.”
On the impact of Brown losing the captaincy:
“He’s gotten better in the leadership category since that happened, and not that I saying that should ever have happened. Ever since that happened, he has become more vocal, he’s having more fun, he doesn’t seem down ever. He just seems to have the pressure off his shoulders and that mostly came from the coaching staff to be honest. Now he’s able to relax.”
On playing against Connor McDavid:
“All I’ve seen on my Instagram the last couple of weeks is him getting breakaways and more breakaways and that is always my number one fear when playing against Connor is that his speed and moves are so quick that you have to honor his fakes because he is so fast that you have to honor them. It’s my biggest nightmare that I am going to give up a breakaway and that he is going to make me look foolish. He is so hard to play against. He is by far for me the hardest to play against. Obviously, you can also bring Sidney Crosby into the conversation but I don’t play against him enough to know to him as well as I know Connor. He (Connor) is threat every time. Even when I am on the bench I watching him get the puck and go, “oh shit”. Every time you literally think something bad can go wrong for your team when he gets the puck and that’s how scary it is. I love the opportunity playing against him. He makes me scared every single game we play against him. I go in there scared. I realize how good he is and it helps me rise to the occasion. There are times when he’s going to get the better of me and times when I get the better of him. That’s just the way it goes.”
Quotes via Jonathan Davis
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