He's been the Flyers elder spokesman for a long time but what we know him best for over his eight years in Philly is his candor.
No one tells it more "like it is" than Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen. At 38, this is quite possibly his last season in the NHL.
He's banged and beaten up and already this season, despite him saying he never felt better coming in, he has not a good start. No points on the ice. Lots of turnovers. Ten minutes in penalties over 8 games.
And now ... he has suffered the ultimate insult: being dropped from the first unit power play to the second unit. This is a FLyers first for Timonen. Probably a career first, he said.
Mark Streit replaced him on the top unit.
And the Finn is angry about it, too.
“Obviously, I have played power-play for 15 years now, so it is a big deal,” Timonen said. “But I am an old-school type of guy and I always feel you have to earn your spot on a power play or penalty-killing.
“And when you get taken out of a power play, I take that as, 'You have to be better.' Maybe I am, like I said, a little old-school about it, but that's a message that I have to play better.
“I played almost 1,100 games, and when that happens, that's kind of some kind of a message that I've got to be better.
“I am one of the leaders on the team, so you have to take that as, 'Be better. Bring better stuff on the ice,' and that kind of stuff.
“You can be mad about it, and you should be mad about it. But you have to do your stuff on the ice and show that you can still do stuff, what you used to do. But life goes on and you have to be better. That's all.”
Flyers coach Craig Berube said he expects more from Timonen.
“I think just from a competitive level, he knows he can play better,” Berube said. “There’s a lot of guys that know they can play better. It’s not just him.
“Everybody can play better. As a team, I’m not here to single anybody out. As a team standpoint, we all can play better.”
For more on this story and teammates reaction, including Streit's, click onto CSNPhilly.com:
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