Steven Stamkos

To the disappointment of hockey fans everywhere, the NHL season has unmercifully suffered yet another lockout. This marks the fourth work stoppage in the past 20 years.  It is difficult to understand why a lockout had to occur now, when the league has grown in both popularity and revenue in every season under the recently expired CBA.

Hockey is a game of tradition. From the Original Six to newer franchises like the Columbus Blue Jackets, don’t tell fans their team doesn’t have tradition. 

The Tampa Bay Lightning struggled on special teams last season. After an eventful offseason, the retooled Bolts have a variety of ways to improve their special teams play. 

Tampa tied for 25th in the NHL on the power play (15.2 percent) and finished 26th on the penalty kill (79.2 percent). On the counter, the Bolts tied for last in the league in shorthanded goals (two), while giving up the second-most shorthanded goals (12). 

The NHL went through a lockout in 2004 and used it to improve the play in their league, but the same will not be said if another lockout occurs in 2012.

Fans will not accept it, and all momentum the sport has created will be destroyed in one fell swoop.

No league should really encourage something like this, but the NHL is especially at risk. It has, and probably always will, finish behind Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NFL in terms of popularity.

There isn't a more beautiful play in hockey than seeing a sniper get set up for a shot, and upon getting the puck, rifles it bar-down for a highlight real goal.

All players can shoot a one-timer, but it takes a select few to make continuous highlight reels for their scoring prowess and high-level skill.

In the following slides I give some of my favourite one-timers from NHL superstars today. Enjoy!

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Claude Giroux enjoyed what can only be described as a tremendous breakout year last season for the Philadelphia Flyers.

This had led many fans and analysts to compare him to the current top players in the NHL, such as Steven Stamkos, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby.

Forget about Ovie. Sid the Kid needs to mount a full-season comeback.

The 2012-13 season will be all about Steven Stamkos.

He is the face of the NHL heading into the upcoming season, and he deserves his status.

Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins took home the 2011-12 Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player, an award that was well deserved as Malkin carried the team in a year heavily defined by the absence of captain and superstar Sidney Crosby.

The Boston Bruins were back home at the Garden after winning two of the three games on their West Coast swing, and greeted the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Bruins had to get their internal clocks back in the Eastern Timezone after taking on all three California teams.

Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier, Bobby Orr, Bobby Clarke and many more NHL All-Stars have each won the Hart Memorial Trophy at some point during their prestigious careers.

The Hart Trophy is awarded to the player that is judged to be the most valuable to their team during the regular season.

Two potential candidates for the award include Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Both players are currently tied atop the NHL's leading scorers in points.