The summer sun of July and August looms, which means it's time to tuck this hockey season to bed, turn out the lights and say, "See you in September." Except...there's still the draft, free agency, rookie camps and...yes, this has pretty much become a 12-months-a-year sport.
Depending on whom you ask, this was either a great NHL season or a step back.
The former cite the continued parity among the 30 teams; the latter complain that Jamie Benn was the league-scoring leader with 87 points. That tied Stan Mikita for the lowest-scoring non-strike season, when he posted 87 points for Chicago in 1967-68.