[chimera]

Kind of interesting to speculate. I'm just an armchair tactician, so I don't know, but say Enterprise had been lost at Pearl Harbor. Lexington then went on to Coral Sea and sunk. Yorktown was patched up and ready with Hornet. Would Halsey have risked going up against Yamamoto with only two carriers? Saratoga was at San Diego undergoing repairs and as it turned out was not ready until after Midway was fought. Maybe they could have sped up repairs, I don't know. A lot of Saratoga’s air group was transferred to Yorktown, whose air group was partially depleted. Wasp was ordered transferred by did not reach station until after Midway was over. Maybe they could have made it sooner, but her work in the Atlantic would have been curtailed. Losing one or two carriers at Pearl Harbor might have made it an even dicer situation, more so than it already was.

[BroJoeK]

chimera: "Saratoga was at San Diego undergoing repairs and as it turned out was not ready until after Midway was fought."

Saratoga arrived at Pearl on December 15, 1941, was damaged in January, repaired but sent for upgrade at Bremerton, Washington.
She missed returning to Pearl in time for Midway by a few days, but doubtless could have been there sooner, if the need were more urgent.

chimera: "Would Halsey have risked going up against Yamamoto with only two carriers?"

Of course, Halsey would have used whatever he had available, but that could have included other carriers had they been more desperately needed -- Saratoga & Wasp were readily available sooner.
Also, Ranger & Long Island could have been considered for Pacific duty under more desperate circumstances.

By the way, we should well remember that Midway was a very close fought battle, easily, easily could have gone the other way absent what I consider Divine intervention (aka: luck).
Indeed, it's as "luck" as anything that US losses on December 7 were so relatively light, and successes in 1942 so amazing.

chimera: "Losing one or two carriers at Pearl Harbor might have made it an even dicer situation, more so than it already was."

Agreed.