January 16, 2013
How will fans respond after being snubbed ny NHL for more than three months?

Fans cheer as Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby skates past during the first day of NHL hockey training camp at their practice facility outside Pittsburgh January 13, 2013. (REUTERS/Jason Cohn)

The great unknown is about to begin: Exactly will happen is almost anyone’s guess.

Normally a new National Hockey League season commences with bold predictions as to what will come. Who will win, who will score, who will star?

Even if the predictions don’t come true — who had Los Angeles Kings winning the Stanley Cup last June? — they are made with a sense of analysis, reason, a hockey logic of sorts. And then there’s this shortened season, post-lockout, and if we know next to nothing when a usual season begins, we know that much less this time around.