Flyers shut down Timonen with broken foot

PHILADELPHIA -- Kimmo Timonen missed 15 games in his first five seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, but it's not like he's been a fully healthy all that time.

That's why it takes something like a broken bone to get the veteran defenseman out of the lineup. The club announced Tuesday morning that Timonen would miss the Flyers' final three games with a compression fracture in his right foot.

"This particular thing has been bugging him for a couple weeks," Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said. "Every time we'd want to go further than an x-ray with it, maybe get an MRI, take a little deeper look, Kimmo said no, it feels better [so] we just kind of put it aside. He got an MRI [Monday] and it showed this compression fracture and the doctor thought because of where it is, the potential risk of doing something much worse if he were to get hit there in that same spot, you're asking for trouble, so we just shut him down."

Holmgren said with rest, Timonen should be healthy in four to five weeks. It might Timonen that long to get over being taken out of the lineup.

"Kimmo hates missing games," Holmgren said. "He was decimated [Monday] when we called him and said this is what we're doing. He was in a bad mood this morning when I talked to him. He hates missing games. He's a tough, competitive older player."

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette hates having Timonen out of the lineup just as much.

"Losing a guy like Kimmo is tough," Laviolette said. "He provides a lot of veteran leadership on this team, a lot of quality minutes He's had a really good year for us. He's played strong. Taking a guy like him out of the lineup certainly is not what you want to do. … He's a reliable fixture in the locker room. That's why not having him in there tonight will be a difficult sight for everybody. We're used to him being in there."

In Timonen's place, Andreas Lilja was recalled from the American Hockey League Tuesday and will play his second NHL game Tuesday against the Boston Bruins (7:30 p.m., NBCSN, TSN).

The Flyers' other lineup change will be Steve Mason starting in goal for the fifth time since being acquired by the Flyers on April 3. In five games with Philadelphia, he's 2-2-0 with a 2.09 goals-against average and .931 save percentage.

Here is how the Flyers' lineup likely will look when they take the ice against the Bruins:

Simon Gagne - Claude Giroux - Jakub Voracek

Danny Briere - Brayden Schenn - Scott Hartnell

Matt Read - Sean Couturier - Wayne Simmonds

Jay Rosehill - Ruslan Fedotenko - Adam Hall

Oliver Lauridsen - Luke Schenn

Kurtis Foster - Brandon Manning

Andreas Lilja - Erik Gustafsson

Steve Mason

Ilya Bryzgalov

Injured: Maxime Talbot (leg), Zac Rinaldo (ankle), Jody Shelley (hip), Kimmo Timonen (foot), Braydon Coburn (shoulder), Andrej Meszaros (shoulder), Nicklas Grossmann (concussion), Kent Huskins (concussion), Bruno Gervais (torn stomach muscle)

Scratched: Jason Akeson, Scott Laughton, Mike Knuble, Tye McGinn, Matthew Konan

Contact Adam Kimelman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @NHLAdamK