After watching Friday’s Flyers loss to the Penguins, one player came to mind mind.  Kimmo Timonen.

If you live under a rock, and don’t know, Timonen is out for the Penguins series, and quite possibly the Stanley Cup (should the Flyers make it), with a blood clot in his ankle.  Timonen was hit in the ankle by a Andrei Markov shot in Game 4 against the Canadiens, developing a clot.

Timonen is hands down the Flyers best defenseman.   He’s stong on the power-play, strong on the penalty-killing, and even better at shadowing the opponents superstar.  He did in outstanding job holding Alex Ovechkin in the Capitals series, and a did the same with Alexei Kovalev in the series with the Habs.

If you watched the Flyers Friday night the defense looked confused.  There was no presence out there to shut down Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin.  As a result the two players combine for three goals and one assist.

If the Flyers expect to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, a defenseman needs to step up and take a leadership role.  On the physical end you have Darian Hatcher and Jason Smith, but Braydon Coburn isthe player who needs to step up.  Coburn, the most similar defenseman to Timonen needs to begin to apply pressure to the talented Penguins forwards.

Although Friday’s game was a disappointment, I expect a stronger Flyers team tonight.  Throughout the playoff Martin Biron has struggled in the first game, only to turn it on in the remainder of the series.  This series will not be easy, but it’s far from over.