Simmonds' new look

Terry Murray said he intends to start tonight’s game with the Frolov-Handzus-Brown line matching up against Dallas’ top line of Brenden Morrow, Mike Ribeiro and Jamie Benn. That should give a different look to Wayne Simmonds, who now partners with Jarret Stoll and Teddy Purcell, but Simmonds said he won’t be changing his approach to the game…

SIMMONDS: “They’re both great players, and I’m looking forward to playing with them tonight. (The coaches) really haven’t said anything to me about it. I came out of the meeting and I had a different color jersey than I did socks, so I figured I was switched. But I’ll always have the same mindset, of playing sound defensively. Hopefully it goes well and we click tonight and we keep it together.”
(on whether things are different in his second NHL season…)
SIMMONDS: “Oh yeah, definitely. Definitely less jittery. I can take an extra second with the puck, to make plays, instead of just firing it right away. It’s a big confidence factor, and now that I have that confidence it makes a huge difference.”

(on whether he feels he is progressing as he should…)
SIMMONDS: “I think I’m getting better and better every game. I think that’s the key. You never want to plateau, and hopefully I can just keep getting better every game, and just improve.”

(on the empty-net goal Monday at Dallas…)
SIMMONDS: “I just won a battle at the boards and turned around. I heard Brownie yelling, and I thought he was in the middle there, but it went in the net so that’s not a bad thing either.”