Wayne Simmonds did not score a hat trick this season. That’s perfectly fine, though, because he had eight two-goal games: the most recent of which included a game-tying and -winning goal against the Penguins to, you know, clinch a playoff spot.
He set a new career high with his 30th goal of the season to get the Flyers a crucial point against the Maple Leafs; he added to that career high with his even more important 31st and 32nd goals of the season. And that eighth multi-goal game so happened to tie a league-high this year along the way, and put him in company with some rather big names.
Via the Elias Sports Bureau, Inc.:
[This] ties him for the league lead in that category with Jamie Benn, Sidney Crosby, Alex Galchenyuk, Alex Ovechkin and Johnny Gaudreau. Simmonds is the first Flyers player to produce as many as eight multi-goal games in one season since Jeff Carter had eight in 2009-10.
That’s a ridiculous group of players to be included alongside. And with Simmonds at 32 goals, he’s fourth among that list: four back of Crosby, two ahead of Galchenyuk and Gaudreau.
Eigthy-one games into the season, Simmonds is tied for 14th overall in goals scored.
It’s almost a shame he was traded for Mike Richards and not Carter; it could have been an even more poetic changing of the guard. But the way things worked out is just fine.
