Now I’m not one to play FJM, and lord knows Tim and Nichols are more skilled in this method. But I can’t help but speak my two cents on this (now archived) Erin Nicks piece from Tuesday night on the subject of Filatov and fan expectations.
Specifically this paragraph:
“But all it took was a simple mention of “top-six”, and some Sens fans seemed ready to, yet again, put all their eggs in one basket. A quick tweet by yours truly suggesting that we not pencil in Filatov for 40 goals alongside Spezza, lead to a “Chill the f*ck out! They’ve got this!” retort from an Ottawa honk. (Aside: We were talking about trades or getting our buddies in and out of the Beer Store with a case while using fake ID? “They’ve got this”? Seriously?)”
Looks innocent enough; Erin our heroic realist truth-teller vs. the masses of myopic and deluded Sens fans. Standard fare Universal Cynic in other words.
Unfortunately the conversation as Erin presents it never occurred. How do we know this? The tweet she linked as being in reply to her was created at 10:27 PM Friday, a full 12 hours BEFORE Filatov was traded on Saturday morning (space-time continuum be damned). When Don Brennan’s man on the street polls are more credible you’ve probably erred somewhere.
So pay no mind the next time The Universal Cynic is bemoaning the intelligence of the Senators fanbase. There’s a better than good chance it’s an imagined reality manufactured to flatter her carefully cultivated permabear aesthetic.
Update:
Since blocking yours truly in the middle of a sometimes acrimonious debate on the merits of fiction vs. non-fiction, this appeared:
“But all it took was a simple mention of “top-six”, and some Sens fans seemed ready to, yet again, put all their eggs in one basket. A quick tweet by yours truly suggesting that we not pencil in Filatov for 40 goals alongside Spezza, lead to multiple battles via Twitter and e-mail on Filatov’s ability, including one memorable bit of advice, which told me to “think of (Filatov) as (Alexei) Kovalev on a two-way contract.” Sold! Why didn’t I think of that?”
A rewrite, any more truthful? Let’s take a look. Did the tweet in question “lead(sic) to multiple battles via Twitter”? For starters she’s chosen to portray this tweet(4:47PM) as being in reply to this tweet(7:38PM). Clearly continuity does not appear to be a strong suit (although 12 hours down to a shade under 3 is an improvement of sorts). In fact this was the single and only reply her “40 goals” remark drummed up. Quite the battle indeed, if that response can in any way be construed as being in support of Filatov scoring 40 than please send me the code. Could Nicks self-proclaimed flash-point of a tweet have instigated a torrent of hostile emails as we’re led to believe? Possible, but judging by all the preceding evidence I’d say the chances are slim to nil.
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