Below is a transcript of Scott Hartnell's end of the season session with the media on locker clean-out day ...

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Q: Scottie is this a sad day?

“Yeah, it’s the last time we’ll be together as a group and it’s never a pleasant day.”

Scott Hartnell had a career-high in goals (37) and points (67), playing in all 82 games for the Flyers in 2011-12



Q: You guys were eliminated in the same round last year, but does it feel different this time?

“Yeah, I think we believed as a group –every year you do—but we felt that we could beat the Devils and the way that we got beat was hard to take too. We didn’t think we were going to go down in 5 but that’s just the way it works and at this point it still hurts.”



Q: When you look at the season as a whole would you say you guys overachieved? Underachieved?

“I think it was a great season. There was obviously a lot of change, coming in here with new faces, the young guys and you never know how that’s going to turn out kind of like my first year here in Philadelphia. It was Danny B, Kimmo, Jason Smith, Lupul, all those guys were new guys and the chemistry that we had right away was great and the same thing happened this year. So, looking forward I like our chances of our guys getting some experience on them and having bigger and better years. “



Q: This was a career year for you personally. How do you prepare for an encore performance next year?

“Yeah, I think maybe I surprised myself a little bit too, just with the goals and that kind of stuff. I’m going to prepare the same way I have been all season and last summer as well, work your tail off and get in shape. You look at our team, there’s a lot of young kids that want to come in and knock you off and take your spot so that makes us old guys work that much harder to stay fit and stay at the top of your game.”



Q: Max said Claude would make a good captain if they appoint him, can you give us your thoughts on that?



“Yeah, Claude is a great guy off the ice and he’s a leader in our dressing room. Obviously one of the best players in the league, the best player on our team and you can really tell when he’s in the line up and he’s playing, he’s by far a big catalyst for our club. I’m not sure what the deal is with Prongs, if he’s coming back or not but looking ahead for this franchise, definitely, he’s going to be our leader, and our best player.”