VOORHEES In the spring, Wayne Simmonds convinced himself he wouldn’t be watching the playoffs.

The Flyers missed the cut for the second time in three seasons and Simmonds was too upset to watch other teams move on.

By the time the Stanley Cup finals rolled around Simmonds had changed his mind and it was the same reason that many Flyers fans found themselves rooting for the team that beat theirs five years ago: a little Finnish defenseman who was at the end of his career.

“The only reason I watched that series was to see if Kimmo would get a chance to raise the Cup,” Simmonds said. “When he did, it was pretty awesome.”

Wednesday night the Flyers will honor the career of Kimmo Timonen, now retired, before facing the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. He was in Chicago last week for the Blackhawks banner-raising ceremony and now walks around proudly sporting a 14-karat white gold ring with 355 princess-cut diamonds on it.

The Stanley Cup was there and Timonen, 40, got to see his name on it.

 

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