Brayden Schenn

Right winger Wayne Simmonds has agreed to a six-year contract extension with the Flyers, the team announced on Thursday morning. The deal is believed to be worth $4 million per season, according to a TSN.ca report. Simmonds, 23, scored a career-high 28 goals and added 21 assists while playing all 82 games in his first season with the Flyers. He came from the Los Angeles Kings with Brayden Schenn in June 2011 as part of the Mike Richards trade. The Scarborough, Ontario, native has 67 goals and 75 assists in 322 NHL games with the Flyers and Kings.

Flyers center Brayden Schenn continued his sizzling scoring and, in the process, netted the game-winner and got the best of his big brother on Thursday night at the charged-up Wells Fargo Center. Schenn scored his fourth goal in seven games, and Scott Hartnell had a "Gordie Howe hat trick" - a goal, an assist, and a fight - as the Flyers outlasted the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3, and ended their losing streak at three games. With a little less than five minutes remaining in the second period, Schenn scored on a rebound to put the Flyers ahead, 4-2. He did it while his brother, Luke, was on the ice as a Toronto defenseman.

NOT LONG after Brayden Schenn was dealt to the Flyers in June, on the same day the NHL released its schedule matrix, he decided to circle an important game on the calendar. For most, it would be a matchup against a former team, like when the Los Angeles Kings come to town on Oct. 15. For Schenn, that date on the calendar is tonight, when he'll play his first preseason game as a Flyer. And it isn't just any preseason game. It's against his older brother, Maple Leafs defenseman Luke, in Toronto.

Score: Flyers 4, Penguins 3 How it happened: Jake Voracek scored at 2:23 of overtime. The Flyers fell behind, 2-0, in the game's first 8 minutes and 3-0 after one period. This formula worked most of the season for the Flyers - defying hockey logic - and it worked again. Amazing. Hero: The last time Danny Briere skated at Consol Energy Center, he was blasted into next week by Joe Vitale. Briere sat out three games with an upper-body injury. He came back Wednesday night and scored two goals to give the Flyers life.

The NHL lockout could not prevent the Flyers from opening the 2012-13 season with a riveting, 4-3 win over the visiting Boston Bruins on Thursday night. OK, it was a Strat-O-Matic simulated game, but it's all we've got. The NHL season, which was supposed to start Thursday, has gone dark as the owners and players are locked in an ugly labor dispute. In the simulated game, Brayden Schenn scored with 1 minute, 14 seconds left to key the comeback victory. Bruno Gervais (!), Danny Briere, and Wayne Simmonds also scored for the Flyers In real life, eight Flyers are playing in Europe, nine who spent time with the team last season are with the AHL Adirondack Phantoms, and a handful of others are training on their own - and maybe even playing some Strat-O-Matic hockey.

When the Flyers and Penguins pass one another on the crowded street of an NHL season, someone usually sticks out his skate or jabs a stick into an opponent's abdomen. The teams came into the league together in 1967 and have had a healthy dislike for each other ever since. And after three playoff series since 2008, that dislike has blossomed into palpable hatred. Thursday, at the Wells Fargo Center, is the third of their four meetings this season. - How do these teams despise one another?

The NHL's discipline department has been busy thus far in the playoffs, and the hearings will continue. The league has scheduled two separate hearings Tuesday with Penguins forward James Neal and another with forward Arron Asham for their actions in Sunday's Game 3 loss to the Flyers. Both players could face suspensions. The series resumes Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center with the Flyers leading three games to none. Neal faces discipline for hits on Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier.

Mucking and grinding . . .   WHEN SCOTT HARTNELL went under the knife on Friday to repair his fractured left big toe, he joined a long list of Flyers to undergo a similar procedure as a result of a blocked shot. From Simon Gagne and Chris Pronger to Jeff Carter, Brayden Schenn and James van Riemsdyk, the Flyers have had quite a few unlucky breaks. They have affected forwards and defensemen equally? Are protective, plastic shields for skates an option to keep the Flyers just a little more healthy in the shortened season?

The Flyers on Thursday signed a speedy, late-blooming right winger who was a second-round draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2010. Petr Straka, a 6-foot, 195-pound free agent who reportedly was courted by 12 NHL teams, signed a three-year, entry-level deal to start next season. He will earn $925,000 next year, including a $92,333 signing bonus, and likely will play for the AHL's Phantoms. Playing for Baie-Comeau of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Straka had 41 goals and 41 assists in 55 regular-season games this year.

RALEIGH, N.C. - It seemed fitting that Flyers coach Peter Laviolette reached a milestone Tuesday in his old stomping grounds. Coaching in the arena where he guided Carolina to the 2006 Stanley Cup, Laviolette notched his 100th win as the Flyers' coach in a 2-1 victory over the Hurricanes at the RBC Center. Rookie Sean Couturier snapped a 1-1 tie by scoring early in the third period, and Sergei Bobrovsky - who has won four of his last five starts - was solid in the nets as the Flyers rebounded from Sunday's disastrous finish in Ottawa.