NHL All-Star Notebook: Wayne Simmonds enjoying experience with best friend Drew Doughty

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LOS ANGELES — If Wayne Simmonds gets his ideal NHL All-Star ending, the Flyers' forward will be barreling over Drew Doughty, his best friend and former Los Angeles Kings teammate, in the final game Sunday afternoon.

Simmonds’ first All-Star experience got off to a fine start Saturday in the Skills Challenge, burying a low-angle shot on a one-timer during the relay and putting one of two pucks through a narrow target from center ice in the Four Line Challenge. In his third event, Simmonds lost to Vincent Trocheck of the Florida Panthers in the Fastest Skater competition.

For Doughty, playing in his third All-Star Game, he is glad to share the experience with one of his best friends in Simmonds.

“He has just got better and better every year, you know. He is a determined guy,” Doughty said.

Simmonds, Doughty and San Jose Sharks goaltender Martin Jones, another former teammate with the Kings, all had dinner Friday night. It was a nice reminder of when Simmonds and Doughty were road roommates during their first seasons together in L.A., though Doughty has a different recollection of their “Odd Couple” relationship.

Simmonds said he was the cleaner of the two, something Doughty vehemently denied.

“He was not. No, I don’t agree with that. No way, no way. We were equally messy,” Doughty said.

The other foible Doughty objected to was how Simmonds enjoyed sleeping in as late as possible, turning the future two-time Stanley Cup winner into a human alarm clock. 

“We had fun being roommates and I miss those days all the time,” Doughty said. 

But that doesn’t carry over now that Simmonds and Doughty are on opposing teams.

“I’ll probably hit him a couple times,” Simmonds said of a potential showdown between the Metropolitan and Pacific Divisions in the 3-on-3 mini tournament. “We got a fierce rivalry. Anytime we play each other we’re always talking garbage, always trying to hit each other, slashes, whatever it may be. We may be friends off the ice, but on the ice, you probably don’t have too many friends.”      

Simmonds in red?
Whenever a rumor links Simmonds to the Montreal Canadiens, he hears it from his family located north of the border. Simmonds sees it, too.

“They send me photos of like my head cropped on a Montreal jersey,” Simmonds said.

With the Flyers currently holding the second wild-card spot in the air-tight Eastern Conference, Simmonds believes the chatter is just that.

“Rumors happen,” Simmonds said. “I’m happy to be a Philadelphia Flyer and hope to be a Philadelphia Flyer for the rest of my life.”  

Vegas, baby, Vegas
The arrival of the Vegas Golden Knights for the 2017-18 season was a hot topic at All-Star Media Day, specifically the potential for hijinks in Sin City.

New Jersey Devils forward Taylor Hall summed it up best.

“I think there will be a lot of rookie parties in Vegas. I also think a lot of wives will be accompanying their husbands on that trip, as well,” Hall said.
 
Youth movement
The NHL started the All-Star weekend celebrating its 100 best players of all-time, including Bobby Clarke, Bernie Parent and Eric Lindros, and will end it with the first appearances of Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine in its mid-season showcase. But it certainly won’t be the last, with Sharks coach Peter DeBoer comparing it to the arrival of current league standard-bearers Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.    

“Ovechkin and Malkin coming into the league is the last time I remember. Crosby and that era was probably the last time you had generational type players step in at one time,” DeBoer said. “These kids are phenomenal.”  

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