Tuesday afternoon notes: 'tis the season for rumor-mongers

With the NHL Trade Deadline approaching on February 27, this is the time of year when we see a particularly pernicious form of parasite emerge from the shadows, the trade rumor-monger who claims to leak inside information via Twitter or other forms of social media. The problem for readers, of course, is that generally the provider of the info is completely unknown, so there's no way to judge the quality of the tease, or at other times people drop tidbits that are so watered down as to be completely meaningless, but worded in a way to make the writer sound like they're an authority. Take this recent beauty:

I won't get into specific's [sic] but we could see a trade in the NHL today. - Todd Cordell

Wow, that's a magnificent piece of work. If a trade, any trade, goes down, the guy can claim credit, but if it doesn't, he's already qualified his message. I try to ignore this stuff as much as possible, and I invite you to do the same. Respected journalists are out there doing this sort of work (Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger et al), and I'll stick to citing them if something comes up.

After the jump, our afternoon hockey notes start off with a cautionary tale about such rumors...

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Nashville Predators News

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James walks through the perilous realm of trade rumors, prompted by stuff being spread on Twitter by an anonymous "insider"...

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Ryan & Buddy chat up the Rangers play-by-play man to set up tonight's game.

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Josh Cooper profiles the two longtime friends who face off tonight behind the benches.

Around the Wide Wide World of Hockey

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Elliotte Friedman notes that past history could help facilitate a Ryan Suter trade with Philadelphia if David Poile decides that it becomes necessary to deal him..

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The Rangers are intent on putting forth a better effort tonight against the Preds.

What Would An Acceptable Return For Zach Parise Be? - In Lou We Trust
Start the speculative bidding, folks!

Martin Brodeur of Devils leaning toward playing next season - NYPOST.com
Put off the Hall of Fame for another year...

Brodeur is a Fraud: Vezina Trends
Feel free to slap someone silly if they bring up Wins as an informative goaltending statistic.

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For those of you who love infographics. By the way, David Legwand will play his 810th game for the Preds tonight.