I wish I had less lockouts in my life. Almost broke my house the other day because my back door was locked and I thought it was just stuck — actually almost busted that thing down which, if you know anything about the quality of housing on South Hill (or maybe just mine), probably would’ve resulted in a destruction of my living quarters.

Sorry for the anecdote, but really these lockouts are really killer. We have the NFL being played with no rules due to a lockout, we almost didn’t have basketball because of a lockout. And now hockey, again.

I don’t care for the logistics of the legality terms the players and locking out for, so I want to take this in a more positive direction. Since the real NHL season is looking about as bright an Ithaca day in January, you needed to pick up a copy of NHL ’13 yesterday.

Phenomenal gameplay. You have a nice exploding speed burst feature, realistic dekes, and players just get crushed (not really realistic hitting at all, fine by me). Make sure you turn up the game speed all the way (obviously) so you’re not playing like old man Finestone would in the seniors league. After that, you’re set. If you think about it hard enough you can almost make believe it’s the real thing. Not really at all, but it beats watching Dancing With the Stars on ice or something.

Also, if you know where I live and know how to use a back door without tearing my house down, feel free to stop by and lose.

Due to the NHL lockout that is going to majorly suck for all parties involved, a positive can come out of the situation: playing more NHL ’13.