NHL in 2012: The year in photos

Controversy, Coyotes, Crosby crunching, Cup-clinching celebrations, CBA conundrums: A month-by-month pictorial of the NHL in 2012.

Captions by Luke Fox

January: This photograph is not remarkable for who is captured within the frame – only the first black President of the United States repping with a hockey sweater – but rather for who isn’t. As the Boston Bruins are congratulated at the White House for their 2011 championship, Conn Smythe winner Tim Thomas was a no-show. The goaltender’s D.C. boycott sparked what was a wild 2012 for a man, now on surprise sabbatical, whose political opinions proved even stronger than his crease presence. Bonus: This photo also foreshadows another NHL newsmaker. That’s Bruins owner and head CBA hawk Jeremy Jacobs to Obama’s left.

February: February’s trade deadline is steadily becoming the most buzzed-about event on the NHL calendar. Unlike, say, the Stanley Cup final, fans of all 30 teams glue themselves to the outcome. This year, Rick Nash’s trade request sent tidal waves through the league. (Uh, anyone not looking to add a power forward in his prime who can score in bunches even with a soft supporting cast?) Ironically, Nash would not be dealt come deadline (asking price too high) and it would be a separate Blue Jackets dealing – Jeff Carter to the L.A. Kings on Feb. 23 – that would help a team win the Cup. (Love this photo as it shows Nash glaring in a game versus his eventual new team, the New York Rangers.)

March: Perhaps he would have received more adulation had he played in a more frenzied hockey market. Maybe if his Tampa Bay Lightning qualified for the postseason, he would’ve got the props he deserved. Regardless, Steven Stamkos’s remarkable run to 60 goals is something to behold. Here, on March13, he celebrates number 50 against the Bruins. It was at this moment 60 seemed not only doable but expected. We’ll be shocked if this is the only time Stamkos reaches the milestone. The guy is only 22.

April: Can’t remember being more jacked about a first-round playoff series as the Penguins-Flyers gong show. Hate runs deep Pennsylvania. While so many other series were being won by standout goaltending performances, Philly’s upset of the Pens saw 56 goals, 45 of them in the first four games. One match saw 138 penalty minutes dished out. Here, Philadelphia Flyers star Claude Giroux (left) grabs holds of Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby as Kimmo Timonen lands a punch to Crosby’s jaw in Game 3. Not only did Giroux and Crosby fight each other, but the competitive blood spilled into the offseason, when Giroux accused 87’s hacking faceoff ways of necessitating Giroux’s double wrist surgery.

May: Phoenix Coyotes’ Michal Rozsival lies injured on the ice after being hit by Dustin Brown’s controversial knee in overtime during Game 5 of the Western Conference final against the eventual champion Los Angeles Kings on May 22 in Glendale. Brown’s hit, which drew the ire of several Coyotes (most notably their normally composed leader, Shane Doan), went unpenalized and the Kings quickly scored the 4-3 OT winner that sent them to the finals. The moment intertwined so many of 2012’s storylines: the frustration of the Coyotes, desperate for an owner yet playing their best hockey in history; the scrutiny of the referees, harshly criticized in these playoffs; the rise of the Kings; and the notion of karma biting the Coyotes back after Raffi Torres famously put Chicago Blackhawks star Marian Hossa on a stretcher in a previous series.

June: Defenceman Drew Doughty celebrates with Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Quick as time drips off the clock. June 11 – the night the eighth-seeded Kings stomped all over the New Jersey Devils 6-1 and brought the very first Stanley Cup to Sacramento. I mean, Los Angeles.

July: Minnesota twins. In a bold (and, later, suspicious) move, Wild owner Craig Leipold signs the NHL’s two most coveted unrestricted free agents, defenceman Ryan Suter (left) and centre Zach Parise, to identical 13-year contracts worth $98 million apiece. Tickets for 2012-13 Wild games that would later be cancelled begin selling like hotcakes.

August: After a frenzied July that saw the monster signings of Parise and Suter, the Rick Nash trade to an increasingly stacked New York Rangers squad, and the crapstorm that surrounded the Philadelphia Flyers’ inking RFA Shea Weber to an offer sheet, August was all about the best UFA standing: Shane Doan. The 2012 recipient of the Mark Messier Leadership Award remained loyal to Phoenix, despite offers from a half-dozen teams and interest from plenty of others.

September: The existing collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players expires on Sept. 15, and – as promised – the players are locked out. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman faces the media as the NHL’s third lockout in 18 years becomes ugly reality.

October: Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby, finally healthy but unable to play games, becomes the frustrated face of the league. Unlike so many of his elite peers, Crosby does not hop a flight to Europe and instead engages in the CBA negotiations, taking a prominent role on the players’ side.

November: Love this photo as it nicely encapsulates the paradoxical nature of the 2012 Hockey Hall of Fame class, showing off their rings with hockey’s greatest trophy in the backdrop. Only one of this year’s four inductees, Joe Sakic, hoisted the Stanley Cup during his career. Here, Mats Sundin smiles wide – as he always does during his returns to Toronto.

December: Post-Christmas, Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (left) carries the hopes of Team Canada’s world junior squad, a team beefed up due to the NHL’s dormancy. The young Oilers are that rare team whose stars are all see playing time (mostly with the AHL’s Oklahoma Barons) during the lockout.