See the second chart in my post that opened this thread.

It went way beyond the trend that was established up to then, or since. It was a perfect storm of precipitation, warm weather, currents, cyclones, and cloud cover. I believe this year will surpass it, or come real close. It fits in with the pattern; the summer low ice record is broken every five years on the average. The summer high ice record has never been
broken, it was set when we started taking measurements in 1979. The trend is it just keeps dropping.

But if 2017 doesn't blow the 2012 record away, no matter how close it comes, the denialists will be talking about an ice "recovery", how the Arctic is "making a comeback". That's what they said in 2013.
If you just read what they say and the numbers they select to print and don't actually look at the data curves, it all sounds so reasonable, so carefully thought out, so scientific, so Conservative.

Don't take my word for it. Go to the interactive yearly comparison graphic

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/

and plug in the curves for the last few years and see for yourself.

For a look at alternative data, check the similar Japanese Space Agency graphic at

https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/vishop/#/extent