from Roy MacGregor of the Globe and Mail,

Finally, we get to call it a season.

But call it what?

An aberration, in that there was no 2012 to it and the “-13” NHL season did not end until after the summer solstice?

An insult, in that both players and owners fought for four months over the fans’ wallets and never once had the decency to ask what the fans thought about it?

A revelation, in that no matter how outraged fans became over this second jilting in seven years, they flocked back to the altar in record numbers?

It lasted only 48 regular-season games and four rounds of the playoffs. It began with some of the worst hockey imaginable and ended with perhaps the best Stanley Cup final since, well, the days of the Original Six – befitting, as the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins went the distance, with the Blackhawks just the tiniest bit better.

There were highlights and lowlights:

continued