In the latest article on Philly.com Simon talks about his future and expresses his wish to stay in Philadelphia. Here are his quotes:

On his past with injuries etc.:

“You wake up and you feel it. You look at all of the stuff you have gone through – the playoffs, all the games you’ve had to play, all of the injuries, the surgeries. It’s part of the game. I’m not the only one who feels that; there are a lot of guys in here who feel the same way.”

On how he feels right now:

“I’m starting to enjoy the game again, that’s been the main issue. The last 2 years have been a little bit tough. Health was an issue. Not playing as much as I wanted was an issue. I’m back to being healthy again. I’m starting to feel good on the ice. Even when we’re losing right now, I’m having fun coming to the rink. That’s something that, to start the season, I lost a little bit. All that helped me get a good feeling again about the game.”

On Philadelphia:

“This is a place, I always say, that’s maybe the best place for me to play. Is that because it’s the only place I’ve really played? I don’t know. Philly is one of the places that I have good memories, good friends, and my family is comfortable there.”

On the future:

“It would be an easy choice if ‘Homer’ would come to me and ask me to stay. We’ll see. I’m not sure if they’re going to want to make a lot of changes, or what they are thinking. It’s tough to look at our team, tough to judge why we play so poorly sometimes. We don’t have a full lineup, it’s a shortened season.”

On the ‘money issue’:

“I’m at the point of my career where I made really good money for a while. As a player, your goal is to win the Stanley Cup. I did that [with the Kings last season]. I still want to win the Stanley Cup. At the end of the day, money is just a small question. Being happy is important. If I like the place, I’ll make things work – for everyone to be happy, to make sure that it doesn’t hurt the team.”

source: Philly.com

Dear visitors, fellow Gagne fans,

as you must’ve noticed in the past few weeks the frequency of the updates on the website has lessened. I am very much sorry for that. Since I am in my final semester of graduate school things have been really crazy for me and it won’t get any better in the upcoming weeks. I am currently working on my diploma thesis and will have to add studying for my final exam soon. This is all very stressful and demanding, and because of that I haven’t been able to post many news on the website. Add the time difference to that – I don’t think I’ll be able to stay up the whole night to watch the few more games left in the Flyers season. Since the pressure will grow as the exam will be drawing near I’m afraid I won’t have time for SimonGagne.com at all. I hope you can understand that.

But worry not! If everything goes well I should be free by the beginning of June and will come back to continue working on the website as hard as ever before. I will try to make it even better for you, guys. I will try to get you more involved. And I will be bringing you all the important news that have anything to do with Simon. Because that’s what I really love to do

In the upcoming weeks I will at least try to keep you updated via Facebook and Twitter. So remember to “like” and “follow”! And make sure to check them out

Remember, this is not a goodbye! It’s more of a see you soon I just felt the need to give you an explanation of what is going on and why there have been so few updates recently. Thank you again for understanding and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Take care!

-Katie

Simon Gagne spoke to the media following the Flyers practice today.

Admin’s note: I apologize for the delay. I had some technical difficulties. Thanks for understanding.

Following their hard-fought shootout win against the New Jersey Devils, the Philadelphia Flyers aimed to continue on the winning side of things as they headed off to Tampa on Monday. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to do so. The Lightning seemed to be always a step ahead, gaining lead twice in the first period. At 6:38 when Ondrej Palat scored for Tampa it was Maxime Talbot for the Flyers at 13:55. At 17:03 the Lightning regained their one goal lead with a goal from Pyatt. The Flyers were able to tie the game once more when Claude Giroux scored an unassisted goal at 15:21 of the second period but that was all from them that night. The Lightning though had Teddy Purcell to deflect the puck behind Bryzgalov to make it 3-2 and as the time flew by Steven Stamkos scored his 200th career goal as the Flyers were trying to tie the game with an empty net. The Flyers fell to the Lightning 4-2. They don’t play until Sunday when they travel to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins.

While the overall impression of the Flyers performance wasn’t too good, Simon didn’t have that bad of a game. He was fast, creating offense, also getting some chances himself. He had one shot on net, one attempt blocked and was even in +/- rating. He played mostly on a line with Matt Read and Max Talbot.

Full game recap and video links after the jump!

Simon spoke to the media following the Flyers shootout 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

After suffering a 5-2 loss in an atrocious game in New Jersey (which I apologize for not recaping, things and responsibilities got in the way) the Flyers returned home to Philadelphia to get a rematch against the Devils. They didn’t start off much better than in the last game, getting outshot and outplayed early on. They also got themselves into trouble when towards the end of their own power play Voracek and Simmonds were penalized for hooking and roughing respectively at 10:34 which gave the Devils a 4 on 3 power play, quickly turning into a lengthy 5 on 3. Fortunately the Flyers were able to kill it off. At 15:21 they also got a bit lucky when Read passed the puck to Gagne who skated with it into the Devils zone and as the two NJ defensmen collided in front of him he got plenty of time to pass the puck to Talbot who put it in the net from a side of the goal, 1-0 Flyers. The Devils managed to tie the game though at 06:09 in the second period when Clarkson deflected the puck behind Bryzgalov‘s back. No other scoring followed in the regulation, though both teams had their chances and good looking moments. The game went into overtime which didn’t see any scoring either. The game had to be decided in the shootout, which historically doesn’t bound well with the Flyers. They were able to win that one though when Read and Giroux scored, while it was only Kovalchuk for the Devils who got the puck behind Bryzgalov. The Flyers won 2-1 in the shootout.

Simon played a good game which seems to be happening more often than not since his return to Philadelphia. Despite not being credited with any shots on goal he made a great play assisting on the Talbot’s goal which put the Flyers in the lead. He blocked one shot, had 15:05 minutes of ice time, 3:20 of which were on a power play and was plus-1. Here’s what Simon said about the goal situation:

“I was able to walk in and go one-on-one against their goalie, who likes to challenge a lot. I could have taken the shot, but I saw Max by himself on the side of the net so I decided to make a pass to him. I knew he was good enough to put that in. It was a good feeling to get that first goal for us.”

Full game recap and video links after the jump!