Simmonds missed just three shifts before returning with the bubble shield. And then, with lips swollen practically to the size of grapefruits, Simmonds turned the Flyers' two-goal hole into a one-goal lead with back-to-back second-period goals.
Even missing Jaromir Jagr, Andrej Meszaros, James van Riemsdyk and Danny Briere (for two periods), Simmonds shook the Flyers to a 7-2 win - thanks to an explosion of seven unanswered goals.
"I sit beside him in the dressing room, the guy couldn't even talk," teammate Brayden Schenn said. "You couldn't hear what was coming out of his mouth because he was so swelled up. That shows you what kind of character he has."
Understandably, Simmonds was unable to speak to the media postgame.
His play on the ice spoke for itself: It was the stuff of which Flyers legends are made. And suddenly, Simmonds has made both Flyers fans and management say "Mike Richards, who?"
Simmonds, 23, has now hit the 20-goal plateau for the first time in his career. He has 20 goals and 16 assists, as one of just six players to skate in all 57 games this year. Richards, his trade counterpart in Los Angeles, went into last night's late game with six fewer goals and two fewer assists than Simmonds, who has all of Richards' grit and toughness.
Last night marked just the fourth two-goal game of Simmonds' young career.
"He played really strong," coach Peter Laviolette said. "I thought when he got back in the first period, I didn't like a lot of what we were doing, but I didn't mind him. And that's coming right from the [surgical] table and having your mouth numb like that and teeth knocked around.
"He was ready from the start."
