It is hard to say at this point who "won" and who "lost". However it is obvious that no matter the outcome for the NHL, they are the true losers as they now have the responsibility of not only making it up to the fans that are left, but also bringing back the ones that have left.
A simple "Thank You Fans" on the ice will not cut it this time. Seriously, did it help at all last time? Mostly it just made fans even more angry to think that after all they had endured all they got in return was a simple message on the ice.
The league faces this task which I would not want to be responsible for. Lets just hope they figure out a way to restore our sport to at least some of its old glory, and learn from its mistakes in order to prevent future work stoppages.
View the statement from NHL.com here.
As for what this means for Frozen Faceoff:
We will continue to update the 2013 with the remaining teams that must install their ices. We will also keep an eye on Calgary who I would expect to change their ice back to the familiar C logo filling the center circle.
The absence of the NHL was a large factor that led to the building of the minor league ice graphics and perhaps the only factor. However, those will not be going away and we will continue to frequently update the sites as we did before. It is my personal goal to continue building the site so that there is a little something special here for any hockey fan.
Thank you for your continued support.