Had the decision been up to him, Kimmo Timonen would have finished the final three games of the Flyers' ill-fated season.
It wasn’t.
The medical staff made it for him late Monday, informing the 38-year-old defenseman he was being shut down for a compression fracture in his right foot.
“He was decimated yesterday when we called and told him,” general manager Paul Holmgren said. “He wasn’t in a very good mood this morning. He hates missing games. He is very tough and a competitive player.”
Holmgren said the injury had been bothering Timonen for a while but every time the club offered to get a detail MRI of the foot, he backed off.
Timonen took a shot off that foot on Feb. 16 at Montreal and it seemed to bother him ever since.
Obviously, Timonen, who frequently had a walking boot on at practice, feared the worst of an MRI before finally conceding to one this week.
A compression fracture is an indentation that can become a full fracture if not permitted to heal.
“The doctors thought where it is, the potential risk of something much worse if he got hit there in the same spot, you’d be asking for trouble,” Holmgren said. “So we shut him down.”
When the Flyers' lockout-shortened season began on Jan. 19 against Pittsburgh at the Wells Fargo Center, their starting defense read like this:
Kimmo Timonen-Luke Schenn
Braydon Coburn-Nicklas Grossmann
Andrej Meszaros-Kurtis Foster
Of that group, the lone survivors are Schenn and Foster.
This was among the biggest reasons why the Flyers' season has been so bloody awful and why they’re not in the playoffs.
“Good teams fight through stuff like this,” Holmgren said. “We just didn’t find a way to fight through it.
“Is it a factor? Probably. At the same time, you need to fight through things and we didn’t.”
Timonen will finish the season having played 45 games with 43 points.
Holmgren estimated his recovery time will be 4-5 weeks, but realistically, it’s all spring and summer since the Flyers won’t be in the playoffs.
“Losing a guy like Kimmo is tough,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “He provided a lot of veteran leadership on this team. A lot of quality minutes. He’s had a really good year for us and played strong.”
Timonen has a one-year, $6 million extension into next season.
This is Timonen’s seventh injury since 2008-09, although he almost never misses a game and was the club’s reigning “Iron Man” for a couple seasons.
Since 2008, he’s had a concussion, chip fracture to his ankle, broken toe, injuries to both feet that did not require surgery, a hip flexor and herniated disk surgery.
Call-ups from Phantoms
Andreas Lilja, recalled from the Phantoms, replaced Timonen and played with Erik Gustafsson.
The four other Phantoms call-ups did not play: forwards Scott Laughton, Tye McGinn and Jason Akeson as well as defenseman Matt Konan.
Laviolette said even without playing, they can learn just by being here.
“No question,” Laviolette said. “You get to practice, you get to work on certain things. You get to experience the games and locker rooms. Those are all valuable things. They’re excited to be here. It’s an opportunity for them to get out and do some work.”
Jagr on Voracek
Jaromir Jagr influenced everyone in the Flyers’ locker room last year (see story). But arguably, Jakub Voracek, who shares a hometown with the veteran winger, took the most away from the experience.
That’s evident in the big step forward Voracek took this season.
Jagr, who hasn’t talked much to Voracek or any other Flyer this season, is impressed with what he’s seen from the young Flyer, however.
“It’s all about opportunities,” Jagr said. “When you got opportunity, you have to be ready to grab it when you can, and I think he did it. He’s strong on his skates, he can skate very good.
“So right now when he plays with G [Claude Giroux], the more ice time’s coming, the passes are coming, the opportunity is coming and he did a great job to grab the chances.”
The fight
Pretty even tussle in this one between Jay Rosehill and Shawn Thornton. Rosehill lost his balance early and fell.
“I think I was kind of down even before we got started,” Rosehill said. “I fought him a few times and he's a class guy. He's been doing this for a long time and he knows how to
do it the right way.
“He let me back up so we could finish what we started and that's a testament to the way he plays. I appreciate that and maybe next time this will come around my way as well.”
Loose pucks
Simon Gagne scored in the final period for his fifth goal. More significantly, it was his 596th career NHL point, moving him closer to 600. ... The Flyers' two goals in the second period were seven seconds apart but that is not a record. The record is six seconds set on Jan. 19, 1985, when the Flyers scored two shorthanded goals by Miroslav Dvorak and Illkka Sinasalo. Also, the last time there were two Flyer goals seven ticks apart was Dec. 27, 1988, on goals from Moe Mantha and Ron Sutter. ... Oliver Lauridsen picked up his first NHL goal. He was plus-3 playing 19:05 and was credited with two shots and two hits. ... Luke Schenn led the Flyers with eight hits and was plus-3 with four blocked shots. ... Rosehill picked up five hits in just 8:34 of ice time.