This is the full transcript of the Bob Clarke interview last night after the Peter Forsberg conference call. Our thanx to Chuck Gormley, the pool reporter in Philly, who spoke to Clarke and the Flyers for transcribing the interview ...

BOB CLARKE

Q: What did you learn today?
Clarke: "We weren't caught by surprise. When Peter came back from the Olympics, Peter went to Carolina so we knew what the problem was and we knew that it surgery was required he was going to be out for quite a few months. When we met this morning, Peter and Jim McCrossin explained what was going on and Peter's has to get it done. It's not that he wants to or that he has an option. He has to get it done, so let's get it done. "

Q: Was there an option of doing it during the season?
Clarke: "No. It was so late in the season when we found out. If he is going to have a successful rest of his career, he has to get this done. He can't go this way or he is going to have this constant groin problem and back problems that this causes."

Q: With Primeau out and now Forsberg, what does this mean to you for this off season?
Clarke: "Peter missed about 20-25 games this season so we can play along without him for the length of time it takes. We are going to have to. And we believe that we will have Primeau back. If Primeau doesn't come back then, there's going to be some big holes. We'll survive until Peter's comes back and we'll be stronger if Primeau comes back. If he doesn't come back then it could be a problem. We are going to be awfully young anyway. That will just put some more heat some of our pretty good young players."

Q: Will you or do you need to know something on Keith before July 1?
Clarke: "No. I don't think in Keith's case, that we are really going to know about his status until we go through training camp. That is the only true test. We believe that he his going to be all right."

Q: What have they exactly told you about Peter, in terms of how long he will be out?
Clarke: "Roughly that he will be out until Christmas of the 1st of the New Year. It could be a little less or it could be a little more. But we have to operate out team under the assumption that it will be around Christmas time."

Q: Does your line-up stay the way it is, at least at the center position?
Clarke: "Looking at it, we have Primeau, Handzus, Carter, Nedved, Umberger. We could switch Umberger if we needed to. If everybody is healthy at center we are pretty deep. Again, if we lose Primeau that will be a hole we found that we cannot replace. We couldn't do it this year and I don't know how we'd do it next year other than throw a young player in there I guess. That's only if we find out that Keith can't play. If he can't play, even though you have that cap money, you don't find that type of player. These are problems we are facing, but we don't know the outcome."

Q: Did you talk to Peter about a possible contract extension at all today when you met with him?
Clarke: "No. We just talked about his feet. It was boring."
Q: Is it too early to be looking at signing your restricted guys?
Clarke: "We have made no attempt yet. It's still a little early for that. We are still gathering all the facts and information on the guys. We will get going on Gagne and Kim Johnsson in a couple of weeks. We have to get all our stats first."

Q: Have you ever seen anything like this-injury wise?
Clarke: "No, nothing."

Q: Any reason for all these injuries?
Clarke: "It would only be guesses, Chuck. I think we have to find out if this was just a bad year for us or if lots of other teams are having the same problems when their season ended. This new game is wonderful. It is wonderful to watch and it's played at a fast pace, but if you are hurt all the time then there has to be some looking at it. Maybe it was just a bad year for us and everything will be fine in the future. I don't know. I know we aren't the only team that has gone through this this season. There are other teams that have had lots of problems, but how many, I don't know."

Q: Are the other teams having problems with their hips?
Clarke: "The league gets all of the injury reports, but we don't have them back yet. There is a supposedly a record number of goaltenders with labrum injuries on the hip but I don't know about other players."

Q: Is there any second-guessing about Jim McCrossin over training these guys?
Clarke: "No, everything is fine. He is the best. For years we have been in the bottom five or six in the league for injuries. Lots of teams have had years like ours. This year we made up for all those other years. It was just one of those years. These injuries have nothing to do with conditioning or anything at all like that."

Q: Is there anything you've learned in the last couple of days? I know there's been a lot of meetings and reviews. Are there any answers you found in the last couple of days?
Clarke: "Not really. We know that there has to be some changes heading into next year. We have to change our approach. Our style has to change somewhat. It sounds like an excuse and it is an excuse but I don't know of anybody that could survive with the amount of injuries we had this season. Legitimately are problems were caused because we had so many beat up athletes. Guys like Handzus, Kapanen and Rathje---they shouldn't have been playing. They were getting needles every day so they could play. You admire then because they are tough people. But you can't expect to be your best team when everybody is hurt. They actually did an unbelievably good job for us this year with all their injuries. These guys are tough men. It is something to be proud of what these guys did for us."