By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Wayne Simmonds first All-Star appearance was back where it all began for the Flyers winger, in Los Angeles. Simmonds certainly made the most of his first appearance.
In the semi-final round, Simmonds scored the first two goals for the Metropolitan Division in a 10-6 win over the Atlantic Division. In the earlier semi-final game, the Pacific Division claimed a 10-3 victory over the Central Division. In the final, Simmonds scored the deciding goal in the Metro's 4-3 win and took home MVP honors with the three-goal performance.
The Pacific rolled to a 10-3 win in the first game of the afternoon. Cam Fowler and Jeff Carter helped the Pacific open up a 2-0 lead. Jonathan Toews trimmed the lead to one, but goals by Connor McDavid, Brent Burns and Drew Doughty made it 5-1 Pacific as the halfway point of the game hit.
P.K. Subban got the Central on the board to start the second half of the game, but Johnny Gaudreau and Joe Pavelski made it 7-2 shortly thereafter. Vladimir Tarasenko brought the lead back to four before Ryan Kesler, Bo Horvat and Gaudreau, with his second goal of the game, rounded out the 10-3 score.
The Central had just 12 shots on goal in the 20-minute game to the 22 shots for the Pacific.
The second game of the afternoon featured the two Eastern Conference division and was a much more even affair than the first game.
Simmonds scored the first and second goals for the Metro, opening the scoring in the game with his first. Tampa teammates Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman each scored goals to tie the game after Simmonds' tallies. The Atlantic took a 3-2 lead with a goal by Erik Karlsson, but John Tavares scored the equalizer with 1:15 to play in the first half of the game, bringing things to a 3-3 tie after 10 minutes.
Auston Matthews opened the scoring for the Atlantic in the second half. The lead was short-lived with Tavares scoring his second goal to tie things up at four. Seth Jones put the Metro on top seconds later and Taylor Hall also found the net just five seconds after to put the Metro up by two. Kucherov's second goal of the game cut the lead to one before the Metro pulled away for good with goals by Sidney Crosby and two goals by Cam Atkinson, one into an empty net. Vincent Trocheck got the Atlantic back to within three, but Alex Ovechkin added one more goal with one second left in the game and the game finished with a 10-6 final.
It was a much more competitive final game between the Metropolitan and Pacific Divisions. It took just 22 seconds for the Pacific to get on the board with a goal by Pavelski. Seth Jones answered at 1:25 to tie the game. Justin Faulk put the Metro up just over four minutes into the game, but 31 seconds later, McDavid scored his second goal of the day to tie things up at two. Horvat added his second of the day with 2:08 left in the first half of the game to make it 3-2 Pacific with 10 minutes left.
The one-goal lead held up until the midpoint of the final 10 minutes when Atkinson scored the equalizer with 5:03 to play. Five seconds later, Simmonds scored on a two-on-one with Taylor Hall to put the Metro up with 4:58 to play.
That score held up behind a scoreless second half for the Pacific, thanks to Braden Holtby and a great shot block by Ryan McDonagh in the closing seconds.
Simmonds with his three goals was named the MVP of the game. Cam Atkinson was the only other player to reach three goals on the day.
Simmonds is also the first Flyers player to be named MVP of the All-Star Game since Reggie Leach in 1980.
