Even more disheartening, efforts to organize similar protests in Montreal, Boston, and Tampa Bay didn't appear to amount to anything. "Not a [expletive] soul in Montreal", tweeted transplanted 18-year-old Rangers' fan Oliver Quintal, who was aiming to lead the protest at the Bell Centre.

Most disheartening of all, everybody on the Avenue of the Americas knew full well that it would do nothing to prevent the inevitable. Even so, the small group made their voices heard from noon to 3pm, just as they had planned.

Sure, it didn't change much, but it was a yet another reminder that NHL fans care deeply and, unlike the owners and the players -- who haven't met since Wednesday -- they are unwilling to go quietly into the lockout.

Continued, and as futile as these protests may be, here's hoping they get bigger and noisier as this lockout goes on, if only for fans' own sakes.