Better Late Than Never

EASTERN FINALS

Penguins over Rangers

STANLEY CUP FINALs

Penguins over Canucks

*Denotes playoff team

Stuff We'll Miss

The mediators and make-whole proposals were no fun, but the lockout did have its lighthearted episodes. A few moments and memes that we will remember fondly from hockey's nuclear winter:

THE NHL PODIUM On Dec. 5, after reporters spent hours waiting for a press conference after yet another fruitless negotiating session, someone created a vehicle for much-needed comic relief: the @NHLPodium Twitter handle, which within hours had nearly 15,000 followers. Sample tweet: "Media asking for interviews. I explained I'm an inanimate object incapable of sentient thought. They say no problem, we're used to [Sidney] Crosby."

"CALL THE UNION" The song and video were Yahoo! Sports blogger Harrison Mooney's tongue-in-cheek YouTube plea for CBA negotiations to resume, sung to the tune of Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend." The clip was fun, but no one will miss the sight of Mooney dancing in a Canucks sweater and spandex.

KRYS BARCH RUMINATES BY THE FIRE On a late-September evening, Devils tough guy Barch tweeted a 26-part missive that was at turns introspective and poetic: "As my pen warms from the fire, Neil Young and a fall Canadian night, I wonder how this work stoppage effects [sic] the owners?"