from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,

Only two things, it would seem, can stop the NHL from finally beginning its season sometime early in the new year.

An act of God, something more definitive than that which the Mayan calendar produced last week.

Or the sudden, forced departure of Gary Bettman at the hands of embittered hardliners in the NHL camp.

Since neither is anticipated, feel free to start imagining cold Saturday nights in front of the fire with the game on again, and familiar faces like Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos flitting across the screen, and the beginning of another Maple Leaf soap opera-like season, and a resumption of the always fascinating discussion as to why hockey doesn’t sell in Phoenix.

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