Kimmo Timonen did not mask his emotions following the Flyers 6-1 loss to the Bruins on Saturday. (Photo by Amy Irvin/Flyers Faithful)
The post-game emotions were clearly running high after another loss for the Philadelphia Flyers, this time in the form of a 6-1 embarrassment against the Boston Bruins.
Five players spoke following the game. Claude Giroux spoke for about two minutes, making a statement and dismissing reporters. Scott Hartnell spoke extensively, but was clearly in a search for answers. Steve Mason, the victim of poor defensive-zone play again, tried to sum things up but seemed just as dumbfounded as many would be.
And then there was Kimmo Timonen.
When you think of Timonen, you don't think of a vocal leader. But Timonen wasn't shy with his comments following the loss.
"If that loss doesn't open eyes," Timonen said. "You don't even have to look at the standings, you look at that game and what happened. That's one of the top teams in the league and they showed that to us. So if that's not a wake-up call for us, you're not supposed to be on this team."
Timonen was visibly mad following the loss and expressed it more than usual. A passionate player about the game, he assertively spoke about why players should not be tired despite a lot of games in a short stretch.
"We play a lot of games, obviously, but we get days off," Timonen said. "That's not an excuse but these games are huge. I don't know what happened. But that was learning for us for how a good team plays the game. We got outskated by their forwards big time.
"When you play against a team like that, it's all about what they did. And they were so much better in every area than we were. So it's not the breakouts, it's the skating they did to us.
"You can play defense, it's old, slow. It's a skating game and we got beat by a team that skated way more than we did."
Timonen was then asked if players were tired because of the schedule of late. He was quick to point out that their opponents have just as much work under their belts this season and aren't playing the same way.
"We started the season pretty bad but then we came back," Timonen said. "We played as a team. We skated. We beat a lot of teams by skating, forechecking, creating turnovers. The last four games we haven't done that. I don't know the reason for that.
"We shouldn't be tired. They play as many games as we do and they look pretty good. We've got to find a way to play as a team, skate as a team, pass as a team. We lost today by every category there is in a hockey game."
The full post-game reaction from Timonen is below:
The Flyers will practice Sunday morning at 10 a.m. before taking part in the Flyers Wives Carnival.
Kevin Durso is the lead beat writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.
