Wayne Simmonds holds John Erskine so Vinny Lecavalier can punch him during line brawl (Video)

The Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals have quickly established one of the most fierce rivalries in hockey. Earlier this season, a line brawl broke out between the two teams that led to a rare goalie fight. It happened again on Wednesday night, only this time there were a number of cheap shots from the Philly side.

A couple of huge hits along the boards led to tempers boiling over. Capitals forward Tom Wilson took exception to a clean hit from Luke Schenn on teammate Ryan Stoa, so he skated over to challenge Schenn. Stoa and Schenn were both still on the ground. Wilson waited for Schenn to get up, but Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds came along in the meantime and got a shot in on Stoa.

From that point, Flyers defenseman John Erskine tried to fight Simmonds. Vincent Lecavalier stepped in and squared up with Erskine. At the 2:32 mark of the video, you’ll see three Flyers — Simmonds included — all going after Erskine.

When Erskine was finally able to get into it with Lecavalier, Simmonds strayed from his own fight long enough to hold Erskine from behind so Lecavalier could deck him on his way to the ice. That cheap shot can be seen at the 2:55 mark.

Overall, the Flyers made themselves look pretty bad this time around. Bad blood between two teams can be fun, but there were too many cheap shots to applaud both sides. Hockey fans can only pray these two teams face each other in the playoffs.

H/T Deadspin