Flyers' Wayne Simmonds is OK to face Caps; tough stretch begins vs. Metro teams

Exhale, Flyers fans. High-scoring right winger Wayne Simmonds, who was in the trainer's room for an hour after the Flyers' 2-1 shootout loss to Nashville on Monday night, said he is fine to play in Wednesday's matchup with visiting Washington.

It will be the teams' first meeting since the Capitals' hard-fought, six-game win in last season's playoffs.

"We've had a lot of intense games with Washington over the last three or four years, so I'm sure tomorrow won't be any different, especially after they beat us in the playoffs," Simmonds said after a team meeting Tuesday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. "We owe them. We owe them something. They're coming into our building, so we need to play a good game."

Wednesday will begin a stretch in which the Flyers play 25 of their remaining 48 games against teams from the suddenly powerful Metropolitan Division.

How dominating has the Metro been? Well, at one point last week, the Flyers, Washington, Columbus, and Pittsburgh had won a combined 29 straight.