John Stevens brought with him to the Flyers a ritual he had with the Philadelphia Phantoms in which he would bake a cake before each playoff series and eat it with the team.
It symbolized how all the ingredients (the players of the team) can come together and create something much better than they are individually.
Well, John's cake has just lost one gigantic ingredient.
With one routine-looking shot block by Kimmo Timonen in game four of the Montreal series against a laser from Andrei Markov, life for the Philadelphia Flyers just got a whole lot more difficult.
The news came out today— Kimmo Timonen will be sidelined for most likely the remainder of the season with a blood clot in his left ankle.
Kimmo knew something wasn't right immediately after taking the shot but continued playing. After the game, he had his ankle iced up as if it were a bone bruise.
However, the swelling got progressively worse.
"In game five in Montreal," said Kimmo to the Philadelphia Inquirer, "I started feeling a little numbness in my toes and I was able to play through it that game and it was a little painful.
"Sunday we had a day off and Monday we practiced, same kind of feeling, a little numbness on my toes and Tuesday we had a day off and yesterday same kind of feeling and we decided to do a check up and see what is going on there and today we found out.”
Timonen experienced the same injury in the same exact spot while playing for Nashville.
The Flyers must now forge on against one of the NHL's most prolific offenses without their all-star defenseman.
He has been spectacular in these playoffs—shutting down the likes of Kovalev and Ovechkin.
And could this have come at any more of an inconvenient time? The Flyers must now face a team that has two of the league's best forwards, a hot goalie, and a ton of momentum.
Without their top defenseman.
Of all the adversity this team has faced this season, from suspensions, to slumps, and everything in between, this might be the most difficult to overcome.
And the most heartbreaking.
The city is fully behind the team and believes that they finally have the team that will take them where they haven't been in 33 years. Fate has come along and smacked them all across their collective faces.
It leaves us all wondering, "Maybe this just wasn't meant to be after all."
And yet, this team hasn't overcome all of this adversity, culminating in beating the first place and third place teams in 12 games after narrowly making the playoffs. They did not make it this far just to get beaten around by their cross-state rival, no matter what the circumstances are.
This is a team that truly embodies the "never say die" attitude that is so necessary for success in the NHL. This is a team that has accepted (but not necessarily embraced) the underdog role and, has thrived with its back against the wall.
Going into Friday night in Pittsburgh, the Flyers may be more pinned to the wall than they have been all season. They have just lost their "jack of all trades,” leaving a huge hole that the young Penguin superstars can take advantage of.
If the Flyers are to advance, they will have to find out who can fill Timonen's spot very early on.
This is where a Ryan Parent or a Randy Jones could truly make a name for himself. One is a heralded, smooth-skating, level headed defenseman, who arrived in Philly through the Forsberg trade.
The other is a virtual unknown who showed up ready to play in training camp, earned his spot on the team, and now, is a league leader in plus/minus in the playoffs.
Timonen's loss means a lot of open ice time that needs to be filled by someone. If the playoffs are where players can become stars (just ask R.J. Umberger), these two have the chance of a lifetime.
This is not to say that it will be easy to fill the shoes of Kimmo Timonen or possible at all.
However, this is still a very capable defense that contains a good mixture of veteran leadership (Jason Smith, Derian Hatcher, Jaroslav Modry) and skilled youth (Braydon Coburn, Randy Jones, Ryan Parent, even Lasse Kukkonen).
Don't count this team out just yet. The road has just gotten a little longer, a little bumpier, and a little harder to continue on. It is by no means insurmountable.
This is not a team that will roll over and play dead in a moment like this. They haven't all season when losing players such as Gagne, Richards, Timonen, or Hatcher.
In fact, in each instance, someone stepped up to fill the gaping hole left.
Expect nothing different this time.
This is a team with nothing to lose at this point. A team with nothing to lose and no expectations whatsoever is the most dangerous kind there is.
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5 months ago
very well written. i too agree that the flyers definitely won't win without timonen. i didn't think they'd win before, but now that he's gone, there definitely is no chance. neither smith, coburn, or hatcher can keep up with crosby and malkin
from 5 months ago
One player doesn't make a team, if Flyers fans have already given up on their team due to this defensemen than the Flyers shouldn't be fighting to play for the Cup and deserve to lose to Pittsburgh.
The Stars in round one were without Sergei Zubov and the Stars still dominated in the defensive zone, to a real Stanley Cup contender they will overcome such an obstacle. Have faith in your team.
Also, defense is not about "Keeping up" I've played hockey part of my adult life as an undersized defensemen with little talent compared to the former minor leaguers i played against. (The gentlemen in reference played for the Red Wings for a short stint) In something like four games played against his team he never once scored a goal on me, he out muscled me and out weighed me. Point: Defense is about position and passion for the puck. If out of position than yes "keeping up" matters. But sloppy play of the basics yields bad results.
>> If the Flyers slow down the Pittsburgh tempo and come out hitting and send a message early that Malkin and Crosby will have to fight for the puck and space to shoot the Flyers will win.
5 months ago
Coburn and Jones will have to take their game up ANOTHER level to help out with the loss of Kimmo. It really is a tough break for the Flyers...but if they can play some sound positional defence, this series is still going to live up to the hype.
5 months ago
Alan: I never said that they could not win without Timonen. I actually think that the Flyers still have a better defense than the Penguins at this moment, even without Timonen playing. The Flyers and Penguins are matched up much more evenly than many recognize (or are willing to recognize). The Flyers have more depth in my opinion and if they can play like they have been and continue to get strong play from Biron I think they can stop the Penguins. A lot of it relies on Richards shutting down Crosby like he did during the season and Coburn and Hatcher shutting down Malkin. I think the Flyers have a good chance still.
Also, I don't agree with the "not keeping up" comment. Coburn's a fast defenseman, as is Jones, and Parent is also fairly quick if he's playing. However, the main asset of this defense is the strong mix of speed and positioning. Hatcher is one of the absolutely most positionally sound defensemen in the game, and being paired with Coburn or Jones as he has been allows him to sit back a little and gives Jones and Coburn the ability to play up a little more knowing that if a rush breaks out or the puck gets free Hatcher will already be in position to deal with that and allow his linemates to catch up.
Losing Timonen is a huge blow, but once again, it's not insurmountable.
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