SAN JOSE, Calif. — My voice is gone, somehow lost between the Stars practice on Tuesday and morning skate on Wednesday in Anaheim.



And when I say gone, I don’t just mean raspy; it’s to a point where I’ve written questions on my notepad or typed them on my phone, then showed them to a player to ask them something. I’m essentially mute.



Thankfully Gavin Bayreuther knows what I’m going to ask him about when I grab a seat next to him in the press box at the SAP Center during the second intermission.



“Still can’t talk?” Bayreuther asks.



I nod, a bit sadly, and somehow squeeze out an initial question that I’m shocked he could hear.



A week earlier Bayreuther agreed to give The Athletic day-to-day insights into the life of an NHL player. It’s a week-long stretch that started in Texas and covered four games in four different locales. Let’s move the calendar back to Thursday, Dec.