The NHL lockout has overshadowed anything decent that the NHL has put together over the past year. It’s a shame because of the momentum of the NHL was reaching heights that it had never before seen.

The lockout and subsequent lost season of 2004-05 was almost forgotten, the fans had come back in droves, iconic stars were making the highlight reels on Sportscenter, and the boos that greeted Gary Bettman every time he handed out the Stanley Cup were almost inaudible over the cheers for the cup itself.

Then again, most of the good folks of Los Angeles probably wondered why Kevin Spacey was handing the big shiny trophy to Dustin Brown last June. They were probably also wondering if Wayne Gretzky was still on the team.

All of that is a distant memory now as we the fans and journalists are left to ponder and bicker amongst ourselves as to how and why this lockout could even have happened. The 2011-12 season was phenomenal from start to finish; yet every hockey fan (well the smart ones at least) knew that the collective bargaining agreement from eight years ago expired in September. The total lack of urgency for a resolution has led to the current state of disarray in the NHL.

Enough with the Debbie Downer stuff, here are the top stories of the NHL for 2012:
 

5. Crosby returns-After what seemed like an entire season (which it was, over the course of two seasons) the Penguins’ star captain returned to the ice with a vengeance. Though his Penguins were led quite capably by his teammate Evgeni Malkin in his absence, Crosby’s return from a concussion pumped new and polarizing life into the league. He appeared to show no residual symptoms from his injury and looked every bit the dominant player he was before he was sidelined.
 

4. Drama in the desert-The Phoenix Coyotes have been playing chicken with relocation over the past three years. Terrible ownership and mismanagement had put the team in the not-so-capable hands of the league. With a team that nobody wanted to buy and a crowd that showed up more to see the visiting team, the Coyotes extended their middle finger to the rest of the world by winning their division and knocking people out of the playoffs. Had they not run into the Los Angeles buzz saw, an equally indifferent fan base could own the cup in Phoenix. Fortunately for the 36 hockey fans in Phoenix, Greg Jamison has purchased the team and plans on keeping the team in Arizona.

3. The Lockout-We’ve been over this, and I’m sick of talking about it. Technically, it should be number one, but it’s my list, and I’ll choose to honor actual hockey rather than the literal lack of hockey.
 

2. Minnesota’s lottery winnings-It could be argued that the massive contracts that the Minnesota Wild handed out began the discussions of the expiring CBA in the NHL. The Wild stunned the hockey community by packaging the two most coveted free agents on the market and signing them to enormous deals. The backlash from the free agent coup is that ownership (across the league, not just Minnesota) has been attempting to roll back salaries throughout negotiations, a notion that was not lost on Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. When hockey does resume, the Wild will have a greatly improved roster, and most likely at a discounted price when the CBA deal is finalized.
 

1. The Los Angeles Kings-After barely making the playoffs, the 8th seeded Kings went on an unprecedented run. By knocking off the top three seeds in the Western Conference and blasting the New Jersey Devils in the final, the Kings won the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. For a team that had underachieved all year, and even fired their head coach two months into the season, it was an amazing run. Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) Trophy winner Jonathan Quick carried the Kings through the last month of the season and through large stretches of the playoffs. Now all we need is an opportunity for the Kings to defend their title.