LeafsParadise.com

Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. Bad news, gang. A report that came out Sunday said that if the lockout were to happen, it would not only derail a few weeks or more of the NHL season, but would likely also mean the cancellation of Columbus' turn to host the All-Star game . And it wouldn't even take all that long to do it; Atlanta was scheduled to host the league's most important annual exhibition game in 2005, but that was canceled less than a month after the regular season was scheduled to begin. This is, I think we can all agree, pretty much terrible news. If there's no All-Star game for the second time in eight years, the league's fans — the only ones who will be truly hurt by this labor war between millionaires, billionaires and Greg Jamison — will be robbed of one of their favorite traditions: Complaining about the All-Star game. Can you just imagine how terrible the months of December and January will be when no one is complaining about how many votes the home fans are stuffing into the ballot box for all their favorite stars, like Rick Nash, Jack Johnson and … um, is David Vyborny still on the team? How will we deal with not hearing about how such-and-such-an-old-player doesn't deserve to make it because he's old and terrible now? What happens when we don't get to complain about players not doing their duty to the fans and showing up despite debilitating knee injuries? It's going to be truly shameful. If a great NHL market like Columbus, which finished fourth (from the bottom) in home attendance last year, doesn't get rewarded with an All-Star game, it will be borderline criminal, and we won't know who to blame. ( Coming Up: The return of Alex Kovalev?; Dany Heatley's lawsuit; Jarret Stoll's grandparents violate the CBA; Justin Schultz Hate Night in Anaheim; Tyler Seguin and Aly Raisman being set up by Boston media; Dallas gets a new voice; Darren Helm, lynchpin; Scott Hannan to the Preds; Dale Hunter won't miss DC media; and stop blaming Gary Bettman for all of this. )