I think the reason the "stats crew" hasn't changed their opinion on the Scheif - Connor pairing is that that pairing just hasn't performed well for six years in a row 5 on 5. That's a long time man. Should we really be acting like some frustrations aren't warranted?
All this about there being some crew that "hates" Scheif Connor and "loves" Ehlers is maybe people reading their own fandom into how other people operate, and kind of poisoning the well around here I think. If Scheif Connor pull their weight 5 on 5 I'm sure pretty much everyone will be happy, because they're obviously together regardless of what happens, so that would obviously be best for the team. But I just don't see how anyone can blame people for having doubts about it, or for having faith that Ehlers will come good, after everything we've seen for six seasons.
Maybe if you think things like goal % and shot share are some kind of voodoo then critics of our top line look more like they have some kind of personal vendetta, idk.
Agree with all of this--calling fans with stats-informed views 'nerds' and presuming they haven't watched or played enough hockey is just silly. It feels a bit like being back in the playground at recess, in grade school, after getting too high a mark in math. Ah, how I long for those good old days...
I haven't had a chance to watch much hockey this year, but it seems as if most of Scheifele and Connor's points have been on the PP, 3vs3 and 6vs5. If so, they should definitely continue to play together in those situations. And giving them another month to see if they can reverse their poor 5v5 record is not the worst idea. But, given the struggles of the second line, giving Connor a chance to give them a spark at at 5v5 makes sense. And it could be either Ehlers or Perfetti who switches with him (I'd prefer Perfetti).
'If it ain't broke don't fix it', is not a great way to approach professional anything. You always have to be looking under the surface for problems and at the numbers for insights that aren't visible to the naked eye(sorry anti-statsers).
I'm much less worried about Arniel in this area, as I suspect he would mostly agree with with this approach. The season is young, so we will see...