18: Number of minutes/game Kimmo Timonen played for Team Finland during the Olympics
Whilst over in Sochi, the 38-year-old veteran blueliner was on the ice for a grand total of 108 minutes. That’s good for third among Team Finland and second among Finnish defensemen. Mikael Granlund led all Finnish forwards with an average TOI of 18:15 (my word, what a showing on the world stage for that kid.)
When the Flyers return to the Wells Fargo Center for the first time in almost three weeks to face the San Jose Sharks, Timonen will be understandably absent. Craig Berube announced on Wednesday that Kimmo was going to take the game off, despite being on the ice for practice that same morning. No. 44 hadn’t skated since the bronze medal game on Saturday. Couple that with the jet-lag, the celebrations, the six extra games, and – yeah – the decision wasn’t that big of a shock.
In 6 games, Kimmo finished with 2 assists and 1 bronze medal. If all goes according to plan, Timonen should return to the lineup when the Flyers take on the Rangers this coming Saturday afternoon. They’ll need him for this daunting stretch-run to finish out the season; the Flyers have 23 games over the next 46 days. Yikes.
