Wayne Simmonds looked as if he went a few rounds in a heavyweight fight.
His mouth busted open because of an errant puck in warmups, Simmonds needed 25 stitches in his upper and lower lips. He was bloodied, a couple of teeth were knocked around, and he felt numb. He even played with a full face shield for extra protection.
His numbers sure looked pretty, though.
Simmonds scored two goals after he was blasted in the face with a puck, and Max Talbot also scored twice, leading the Flyers to a 7-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
Simmonds had no comment after one of his best games of the season.
He wasn't being rude - Simmonds was too swollen and stitched up to speak.
His teammates were proud of the way he gutted it out after taking the puck to the face in the pregame skate.
“He's a warrior,” goalie Ilya Bryzgalov said.
Simmonds scored twice and Erik Gustafsson scored his first career NHL goal as part of a four-goal second period for the Flyers. That surge bailed out goalie Bryzgalov, who allowed two goals in the first.
Jakub Voracek and Scott Hartnell added goals in the third for the Flyers to turn this one into a rout. Claude Giroux had five assists and Hartnell had three.
Simmonds was hit in warmups and joined the bench minutes into the first period.
Simmonds, who already has a career high in goals, scored consecutive goals in the second for a 3-2 lead. Sabres goalie Jhonas Enroth was yanked after allowing three straight goals. Ryan Miller allowed one to Gustafsson, giving the Flyers four goals on their first 10 shots of the period.
The Flyers snapped a two-game losing streak and won for only the second time in the last seven games, a rough patch that had dropped them 10 points behind the New York Rangers in the Atlantic Division.
Usually one of the top home teams in the NHL, the Flyers improved to only 14-9-5 in Philadelphia.
“We're a hard team to play against when we're moving north and skating hard,” coach Peter Laviolette said.
