Thank you for this and all you do.
You and I have discussed this before, but I keep coming back to:
If no one ever asks any hard questions on a regular basis (and many of these questions are obvious) how do we fans have any choice but to use the minimal data before us to try to come to logical conclusions and suggestions?...
Well first off you guys don't have to thank me. I get paid. I'm incredibly lucky. In fact I experience a weird form of survivors guilt over it.
BUT to your point...
I would say there's no problem in using the minimal data to try and come to the logical conclusions EXCEPT sometimes there is loads of data you DON'T have so I would argue it's not logical to even try to come to a conclusion when you know you don't have all the data.
It's sort of hard, if not impossible, to know when you know everything and when you don't.
Some examples... in 2017 the team waived Jeff Zatkoff in February. I said they'll be bringing Quick back or trading for another goalie because if Zatkoff got claimed they would have been left with only Budaj. Untenable. I was ASSURED by Insiders(TM) that Quick wouldn't be returning for a few more weeks and that I was mistaken.
Well I think it was the next day they activated Quick and then like two days later they traded for Bishop.
I didn't know that was going to happen but I knew that if Zatkoff was claimed they would be screwed and nobody would do that to themselves.
But I could have been wrong.
During this past offseason and training camp, people started talking about the timeline for Arvidsson's return. To the best of my knowledge only one person ever gave any kind of "official" timeline for his return and then it just got repeated and repeated etc etc etc etc and then people started talking about Fagemo or Vilardi as potential replacements and talked about the audition process, made projected lineups... it was a whole thing.
Meanwhile I was there every day in training camp watching Arvidsson practice with Danault and Moore. He missed the first couple days of camp I think but by the end of camp it was perfectly clear that he would be i the lineup on opening night. That data was out there but nobody was factoring it into the conversation because the conversation had already gathered momentum. Arvidsson was GOING to miss time in the regular season. It was KNOWN. Unless you were actually watching practice.
So I dunno man. This is like the sixth attempt my me to answer this question without saying something I regret.
I have to get ready for the game tonight.
I'll include the audio from McLellan answering a direct question about Byfield in tonight's pregame show.
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