Amongst all the off ice social media chaos surrounding the EHE these days, the Stanley Cup playoffs rage on, despite the off ice distractions taking some of the attention away from the great action happening on the ice.

   The Philadelphia Flyers, whom were eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2nd round of these playoffs several days ago, decided that today would be the perfect day to return to the rink for their locker cleanout.   With most of the hockey world distracted only a could local small time reporters showed up, along with one of the biggest names of them all.  Mr. Ron Burgundy.

   Ron " and you are?"

Jumbo Joe Thornton " Hey!  Love your work, big fan, I am" cut off there, Ron turns it back to himself

Ron" That's great, now where am I?  I was driving drunk, took a wrong exit.  Is this San Francisco?  Are any of you guys Steph Curry?  Where am I?  Canada?  I thought you all lived in Igloo's?  Somebody get me Michael Jordan and let him know I'm pissed!  Let his airness no that me, Ron Burgundy is pissed! Or at least get me Montel Jordan and tell him this is not how we do it!"

   Next Ron in his anger attempted to throw his microphone, but in his current mindset he did not take into account the fact that he was indoors and the mic hit the roof and redirected down to hit his camera man in the face.  Ron also managed to find the floor in his attempt, and decided it was a good time for a nap.

   The Flyers players were glad to get a laugh and not have to answer any questions regarding their game.  Now it's onto the offseason, where the plan continues to be a full fledged rebuild, which is nearing it's end, so expectations will start to float around, and Philly fans are some of the toughest crowds to please.

    One of the biggest things to take place in the offseason is always the draft.  The Flyers own their first 3 picks this year, compared to previous drafts, this will be a low number of selections to work with.

   One of the biggest things on GM Mucyk's plate will be negotiationg a new contract with captain Gabriel Landeskog who is entering the final year of his deal.  This past season he scored 28 goals, but like the rest of his teammates, Landeskog struggled to find his offensive game in the playoffs.  Gabriel is protected by one of the teams franchise player tags.

     Next season's roster will look quite different, in fact both the NHL and AHL clubs will ice new look lineups come the puck drop on the 2018-2019 EHE season.  There will be a couple of holes to fill at the pro level, however it is time that the Flyers prospect pool began to make the leap onto the big pond.  Guys like Buchnevich, Sergachev, Vrana , Bratt are all expected to find themselves making the Flyers roster straight out of camp, and with an outside shot maybe even Nick Cousins.   The organizations and it's fans are really pulling for Dylan Strome to make the cut as well, but at this time I am expecting that he will again return to the AHL squad.  Negotiations are ongoing with Russian holdouts Valeri Nichushkin and Nikita Tryamkin in hopes of getting them back into North America and onto the ice for the Flyers.   

     This offseason will be a big one for Dman Darnell Nurse from Hamilton Ontario Canada.  The organization still thinks he has another level of play to his game inside him, and they expect that he will put the time in this summer for him to hit that mark.  At still only 23 years of age, there is time.  Speaking of time, backup goaltender Peter Budaj may be out of time as a Flyer, with an expiring contract the team may fish the open market in search of a different set of pads.

     This upcoming season head coach Bill Peters will be in the final year of his contract.  There is currently no word of mouth buzz regarding the coach and the possibility of him and any extension talks at this time.

    Well the players avoided cleaning out their lockers with an angry mob hounding them, so they've got that going for them.   Now it's time to prepare for next season.  Keep watching your t.v's as the EHE playoff action continues