Huge Chris Simon article...

This one from Sports Illustrated's Michael Farber. A couple of quotables:

Darryl Bootland, a nondescript New York Islanders winger, and Riley Cote, a fourth liner for the Philadelphia Flyers, were standing beside each other at the face-off circle in the second period on the night of Oct. 13, jostling with their sticks and engaging in repartee that was more Oscar De La Hoya than Oscar Wilde.

"Why d'ya look so angry all the time?" Bootland demanded.

"'Cause that's my job," Cote replied.

When Cote lifted Bootland's stick and it caught its owner in the face, the contretemps became Chris Simon's job.

Now Simon, sprung from his personal purgatory, switched sides ... or at least moved from the right to the left side of the circle so he could line up next to Cote. "Simon looks at me, and he's like, 'What's up?' " Cote said. "And I said, 'Are we going to do this?' And he's like, 'Yup.' That's kinda [how] it happens."