Timonen not giving up hope of playing

KIMMO TIMONEN has skated in five Winter Olympics, won four Olympic medals.

He has been named to an NHL All-Star team five times. He has been tabbed as the Flyers' top defenseman five times, second only to Eric Desjardins.

In his 15-year NHL career, Timonen has earned a staggering $58,350,000 in salary. He has a beautiful wife, a hockey-loving son and two adoring daughters.

Yet, even though the scrappy, 10th-round draft pick has gotten way more out of hockey than he ever could have dreamed as a boy in Finland, Timonen is still not ready to walk away from the game.

Not with a CT scan showing blood clots in both lungs staring him in the face. Not yet, anyway.

Timonen, 39, will only retire when doctors give him no other choice, he said yesterday.

"I said, 'Kimmo, you're still with us. You have a family. You have a wife. Your life is pretty good. You've also had a long career,' " Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said. "This guy wants to play hockey so bad. Because he could have just told us, 'I don't feel comfortable, even if things are great, I don't feel comfortable [playing] anymore.'

"I think it's just how bad he wants to play and truly how much heart he has as an athlete. I admire him an awful lot just for his passion."

After feeling pain in his right calf on Aug. 4, Timonen went to a hospital in Finland where doctors discovered one "deep vein" clot in his calf and one in each of his lungs. Timonen revealed yesterday his mother and two brothers also suffer from "Protein C deficiency," which makes them susceptible to clotting. He also had a blood clot in his left foot that kept him out of four Stanley Cup playoff games in 2008.

Since returning to the United States in late August, Timonen has sought multiple medical opinions on continuing his playing career.

The consensus, so far, is that Timonen must wait until January to be rescanned to check for clots. If no clots appear, he may resume playing. If there is any sign of clots, his career likely will be over.

There is a chance Timonen will require blood-thinning medication for the rest of his life. If so, Timonen is not permitted to play while on blood thinners.

Hextall reiterated the Flyers would "never put him in danger." Until Timonen can make some sort of determination with doctors, his $2 million salary will be placed on the long-term injury list for cap relief.

"If the clot is still there, it's really easy to understand I can't play," Timonen said. "It's clear to everybody that I can't play and that's it. We don't know that situation yet. But for sure, if I have to go and retire this way, it won't be the way I wanted to leave."

Right now, Timonen can exercise as hard as he'd like - he just cannot participate with any contact. For now, that means he won't be skating "any time soon."

"The chance of me playing is really slim. That's the fact," Timonen said. "I will just try to stay in shape. I'm still focused on maybe getting that little chance. I'm willing to wait for that chance, to see how I feel."

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