May 31, 2008.

OK, I’ll admit it.

I got caught up in the excitement of the run the Flyers made in the 2007-2008 Stanley Cup playoffs.

When the post season began, my expectations were low – I would have been happy with a first-round series win over the Washington Capitals. That series was tough, and they very nearly blew a three-games-to-one lead before sneaking by the Caps in overtime of game seven.

It was all gravy from there on out, I never gave them a chance against Montreal, the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. The Habs have a ton of speed and had a young phenom in the net, which usually leads to success in the playoffs.

The Flyers were all over Montreal, once again getting a three to one lead, but this time closing out the series in five.

And then that passionate Philadelphia fan overcame my logical side, and I got silly, thinking, "wow, this team actually has a chance to go to the Stanley Cup finals."

I actually convinced myself of that before the start of the Eastern Conference finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins, predicted the Orange and Black would win the series.

Injuries to their top two defensemen, Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn, along with Marty Biron’s play dropping from incandescent to merely very good, added a degree of difficultly to the Flyers chances that they were just not able to overcome.

Let’s face facts, the Penguins are a better team than the Flyers, significantly better in fact. What really opened my eyes in the series was the Penguins defense. Once they gained a lead, they sat on it like Rosanne Barr would sit on David Spade. It was a crushing, suffocating defense that wins games.

The only game the Flyers won in the series was the one where they jumped out to an early lead, which is no coincidence.

The best team won, but the Flyers should not hang their heads, because they came a long, long way this season and now begin the process of finding a way to take the next step.

So what do the Flyers need to do to beat the Penguins?

They have several free agents, restricted and unrestricted, to make decisions on this summer.

On the unrestricted side, don’t expect them to resign Vinny Prospal, who disappeared after the first round of the playoffs. The reality is that Prospal was a fill-in for Simon Gagne, who missed much of the season due to concussion issues. Gagne is expected to recover in time for the start of next season.

They face a decision with team captain Jason Smith, who was a leader and a warrior for Flyers, but nagging injuries on top of a guy who never exactly was fleet of skate made him a liability at times in the playoffs. I don’t expect the Flyers to resign Smith.

On the restricted side, they have three key free agents – Jeff Carter, R.J. Umberger and Randy Jones. Carter should definitely be the priority here. While he was once considered trade bait, since those rumors began to float mid-season, Carter began to assert himself on the ice, and was one of the Flyers’ top forwards in the playoffs. Indications are that the Flyers will make a strong push to resign Carter.

Randy Jones also proved to be strong in the playoffs, at one point leading all players in plus/minus. Expect the Flyers to lock him up.

R.J. Umberger is another story. The Flyers would love to bring him back, and he showed he could be a valuable contributor with his scoring explosion against the Canadiens. But if another NHL team were to offer Umberger a big contract, one along the lines that Mike Richards got or what Jeff Carter is expected to get, do not expect the Flyers to match it. Umberger is a solid player, but the Flyers don’t put him in the same skill level of a Richards or Carter.

Another decision that looms is that of defenseman Derian Hatcher, who has a year remaining on his contract, but is getting some pressure to consider retiring. Hatcher, despite having similar limitations that Jason Smith has, had a pretty strong playoffs and a decent regular season, but was limited due to some chronic injuries, including a bad knee.

If Hatcher does hang the skates up, it would give further breathing room to a tight salary cap situation for the Flyers.

Speaking of the cap, with letting Prospal and Smith walk, along with the potential departures of Umberger and Hatcher, the Flyers figure they’ll have enough camp space to make one big move this summer, and that move should undoubtedly be fore another puck-moving defenseman.

If both Smith and Hatcher depart, that leaves the Flyers with Timonen, Coburn, Jones, Lasse Kukkonen, and youngster Ryan Parent on the backline, with one starting spot for a free agent and the seventh spot open for competition.

The top candidates I would have the Flyers consider are Brian Roberts of San Jose, Wade Redden of Ottawa and Mark Streit of Montreal. All three are 30 or younger and fit the description of what the Flyers need.

This summer won’t see the flurry of acquisitions that last summer saw for the Flyers, but the moves they do make will go a long way in finding out if they can take the next step in 2008-2009.