Tomorrow night's game in Tampa Bay will be a special one in the career of Flyers' defenseman Kimmo Timonen. On the same day he celebrates his 38th birthday, Timonen will suit up in the 1,000th regular season game of his NHL career.
In so doing, Timonen will become the 281st player in NHL history to reach that coveted milestone of longevity. Among Finnish NHL players, he will be the sixth player overall and just the second defenseman to join the 1,000 game club. Timonen (526 career regular season points) ranks seventh in scoring among his countrymen who have played in the NHL.
Timonen, a four-time NHL All-Star Game participant (five-time selection) and three time winner of the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the Flyers' best defenseman, got a late start in the NHL. As a 5-foot-10 player who broke in at a time where undersized defensemen had an exceptionally hard time getting a semblance of chance in the NHL, Timonen was not a highly touted prospect (drafted 250th overall by Los Angeles in 1993) when he came over to North America.
In Finland's SM-liiga, Timonen emerged quickly as a rising star with hometown KalPa Kuopio before he was recruited away by a powerhouse HIFK Helsinki team (with general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen at the helm) in the summer of 1997. Widely considered the best team ever assembled in SM-liiga, the championship-winning squad featured not only Timonen but also the likes of Brian Rafalski, Tim Thomas, Olli Jokinen, Jere Karalahti, Jarkko Ruutu and Christian Ruuttu.
The following year, Timonen came over to North America to join the expansion Nashville Predators. The Predators acquired Timonen's rights from Los Angeles (along with those of Jan Vopat) around the time of the 1998 Expansion Draft in exchange for Nashville agreeing not to select unprotected veteran defenseman Garry Galley off their roster.
Although Galley went on to play parts of three more seasons in the NHL, the minor trade that brought Timonen's rights to Nashville proved to be a steal. He split his first North American pro season between the Milwaukee Admirals (then in the IHL) and the Predators, making his NHL debut at the relatively late age of 23. The next year, he became a full-time regular in the NHL and has never looked back.
In order to get to the 1,000-game milestone, Timonen has shown himself to be one of the NHL's most durable players with an extraordinary ability to play through injuries that would sideline other players. From 2000-01 onward, he's played in 72-plus games over every season (the lockout-shortened 2013 season will break that string) and has suited up in 80 to 82 games six times.
In 1999-2000, Timonen was selected to his first NHL All-Star game amidst his breakout season in Nashville, but he was unable to play in the game due to injury. He subsequently represented the Predators in the 2003-04 and 2006-07 All-Star Games. After joining the Flyers in the 2007 offseason, he's gone on to play in two more All-Star Games (2007-08 and 2011-12) while capturing the Barry Ashbee Trophy in 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2011-12.
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Last season, the Flyers were an outstanding road team. In fact, with 25 victories in away games (25-13-3), they tied a franchise record for a single season. Conversely, Philly was 22-13-6 at the Wells Fargo Center during the regular season.
The 2013 season to date has been the opposite story. A big part of the reason why the Flyers are buried in the Eastern Conference standings has been their inability to win away from Philadelphia. The Flyers currently sport a 4-11-0 record on the road, compared with a 9-4-1 mark at home.
The Flyers' next two games -- against Tampa and Pittsburgh -- are away tilts. Thereafter, they will conclude the month of March with a five-game homestand that stretches to April 3. The opponents: Rangers, Islanders, Bruins, Capitals and Canadiens.
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