Here’s a funny story: a few weeks ago, in early February, I sat in the Hillman Library at the University of Pittsburgh. I had some time to kill before I had to run out and catch a flight to Florida later in the evening.

While I sat there, I went down a hockey stats rabbit hole, with a keen focus on Reilly Smith.

Within that time, I had written an entire piece dubbed “The Reilly Smith situation,” and went into detail about how the trade from Pittsburgh to Vegas had not panned out. It was a Friday night and I had suddenly finished an entire draft written that was supposed to go up the next morning on Saturday.

Then, during the Penguins game that Friday night, Reilly Smith scored.

So I cancelled it.

It wasn’t that what I had written had suddenly become untrue, but it just seemed like awkward timing. A few weeks went by and I had forgot about that draft. Smith had actually went on to have a decent few games, and I was hopeful we could see some sort of turnaround from him.

Instead, he has reverted back to the struggling, low-impact forward he has been for much of the season.

A lot of what I wrote in the early going of this month had still remained true, but maybe now is once again more relevant. Here’s a long snippet (unedited) from what I had said before: