Kimmo Timonen will NOT play Thursday night when the Flyers resume their NHL schedule against the San Jose Sharks.
He literally has no skating legs and is still tired and trying to readjust to our time zone. He admitted he is no longer "a young boy" who can make that trans-Atlantic adjustment as fast as he once could.
Flyers coach Craig Berube agreed, too, saying that several of his Olympic teammates who came back from Sochi earlier last week needed a few days of skating to get their legs and energy up.
He is slated to return Saturday against the Rangers.
Timonen beamed about his Olympic bronze medal, posed for pictures, and even chided the media for not giving Finland a chance to medal because of injuries incurred before the competition began.
Here's some Timonen highlights from Wednesday:
- On the Olympics:
“I knew going over it would be the last time I put that jersey on. We lost a couple of big boys before the tournament [Mikko Koivu and Valtteri Filppula] and you guys don’t think we had a chance but I’ll show you the medal and maybe you change your mind now. It’s a team sport. We played as a team. It was a good showing for the Flyers, too. You play as a team, you can beat anybody.
“Overall, that was my fifth time. Everything was great. I got no complaints. The village was brand new, nice and clean.
- Did you have to soak any of it like you said you wanted to?
“Once you get in there, it’s pretty tense with pressure coming from your country and it’s a huge sport in Finland – everyone is watching. Almost 3 million people watched that bronze medal game and there 5 million people in Finland, so that’s great.
- Emotional end for Teemu?
"The way it ended was emotional for me and everybody there. There were couple guys like him [Teemu Selanne] and me and Sami salo and maybe Olli Jokinen too , we knew it’s our last time. For me, it’s been 23 years since I put that jersey on for the first time when I was 16-years-old.
-Beat USA 5-0 to end it:
“It was like a dream come true. We wanted to win the gold and it was a tight game against Sweden, 2-1, it could have gone either way. I knew when we went into that game against USA that if we played the same way we had the whole tournament, we had a chance.
- on himself:
“Got back here Monday. It’s been kinda weird the last two days. Tough sleeping and on the plane 14 hours. I’m not a young boy anymore. It takes a little time to recover.
“Almost like skating in the mud. Haven’t skated since the game ended. We celebrated a couple days, let’s put it that way.
- Going from emotional high to the NHL stretch run:
“It’s hard buy have to., Olympics are over and now it’s time to focus on Flyer hockey. We got some big games coming up.
- Goals:
“If there were a couple goals in my life, it was to win a gold medal and the other was win a Stanley Cup. We still have a chance to do that. Focus on the Flyers and hockey here.
- Comparisons of Flyers to Team Finland and Stanley Cup:
“If we play as a team, I really believe we have a good chance. The way we ended before the break with goalie playing really well and playing as a team, we have a good chance. It takes everybody. The way we played on Finland was as a team and we didn’t have any big stars other than Selanne. You play as a team with a good goalie, anything is possible.
“It’s going to be a sprint now. we got a lot of home games and they are going to be huge. If you look at teams we play against, there are no easy games. Top teams and back to back and a lot of afternoon games. It’s going to be a sprint but I like our chances."
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