Kimmo Timonen risked a lot when signing on for another year patrolling the blueline, at age 39, earlier this offseason, but nobody could have foreseen that his first challenge would come before the season began.
The Flyers revealed on Tuesday afternoon that Timonen is being treated for blood clots in his right leg and both lungs.
"We’re looking at the person, not the hockey player. From everything we’ve heard, Kimmo is resting and doing well," said Flyers GM Ron Hextall. "[Timonen] was working hard and getting ready for the season. I think he's in shock that this happened."
It's not an unknown issue to the native of Finland, who had to miss four of the five games of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals once a blood clot was discovered in one of his legs following the club's second-round victory against the Montreal Canadiens.
Nonetheless, multiple blood clots are nothing to mess with. Clots found in the hips of Penguins backup Tomas Vokoun cost the veteran Czech netminder most of last regular season, the second time in his career it happened -- after a spell in 2007 with the Nashville Predators.
Timonen will be lost indefinitely, and if things are serious enough, he might not take the ice in Philadelphia or anywhere else, again.
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