The Philadelphia Flyers are set to make an announcement at 5 p.m. tonight, according to Ike Richman, a Comcast-Spectacor publicist who dropped that bomb and ran earlier this afternoon.
#Flyers to make an announcement this afternoon at 5 p.m. Stay tuned.
— Ike Richman (@Ike_Richman) April 30, 2012
Ominous. I have no clue what this could be. You have no clue what this could be. How dare they make us wait several hours for this. Jerks. But anyway, let’s speculate. Because … well, why not?
The first instinct? Chris Pronger. That’s what everybody seems to be thinking, but I’m not sure that makes sense for a few reasons. For starters, why would they just “announce” something Chris Pronger related, and why would that happen at 5 in the afternoon? If it’s something as big as Pronger retiring, they’d hold a press conference.
Also, Pronger ain’t retiring. Not with the salary cap. If he indeed can’t play again, he’ll just be LTIR’d for the rest of history, Mike Rathje style.
A Pronger comeback, though? Well, given that there’s been absolutely zero smoke on that front for what seems like forever — nobody’s seen him skating, nobody’s seen him around the team much, etc. — it seems unlikely. We can hope and we can pray, but it seems unlikely.
Maybe they’re announcing some sort of captaincy change? That seems like another possibility. Players on the team have said for a while that they don’t need a captain on the ice, and at this stage of the game, it seems silly that the Flyers would make a change there. Especially between Games 1 and 2 of a playoff series.
If it’s otherwise injury related, that seems a bit off as well. They never “make an announcement” at a set time like this on the injury front unless it’s something seriously major. We would typically just find out in the course of practice or after a practice or the team would tweet out the news or whatever, via Paul Holmgren. Not via Comcast-Spectacor. This would be the possibility that worries the crap out of you for the next three hours, though.
Frankly, this could be anything. More than likely, it’s probably nothing. It’s probably a promotional thing for Game 2. Block party, pep rally, something lame like that.
It’s really tough to speculate over, so we’ll have to wait until 5 p.m. Until then, let’s joke around. A sampling of the best #MysteryFlyersAnnouncement tweets this afternoon …
Not quite sure how, but managed to score three more goals on Marc-Andre Fleury this morning. #MysteryFlyersAnnouncement
— Down Goes Brown (@DownGoesBrown) April 30, 2012
The Flyers have purchased Bryzgalov a chastity belt so he can keep his legs closed #MysteryFlyersAnnouncement
— Adam Gavriel (@NYRBlueshirts) April 30, 2012
Due to agreements with FlyersWest, Jon Quick is the new Flyers goalie #MysteryFlyersAnnouncement
— Down Goes Spezza (@DownGoesSpezza) April 30, 2012
Sami Kapanen just woke up from that Darcy Tucker hit; wants to know how Leafs have done in playoffs since. #MysteryFlyersAnnouncement
— Down Goes Brown (@DownGoesBrown) April 30, 2012
“We’re sorry we went to that Nickelback concert.” #MysteryFlyersAnnouncement
— Laura/theactivestick (@theactivestick) April 30, 2012
The Flyers have acquired Rick Nash and the Blue Jackets‘ 2nd overall pick for “regular season Danny Briere” #MysteryFlyersAnnouncement
— Matt Reitz (@ViewFromMySeats) April 30, 2012
#MysteryFlyersAnnouncement “The Flyers saved 15% on our car insurance with GEICO.”
— Bucky (@BuckyHermit) April 30, 2012
Add your own in the comments.
