Year In Review - The Top 15 Newsmakers of 2005

A lot happened on both the Canadian and international political scenes in 2005. Since everyone loves lists, especially me, I thought I would do a one-a-day countdown of what I think were the top people, places and things that made news over the course of the past year. Each day for the next 15 days, I'm going to do a post counting them down from number 15 till we get to number 1. As always, feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts.

(This list is going to be limited to things that occurred in calendar year 2005, so events that happened late last year and had an impact well into 2005, like the tsunami and the death of Yasser Arafat, will be left aside.)

Let's get started!!!

#15 - The NHL Labour Dispute


For the first time ever, the Stanley Cup was not awarded this spring because league owners locked out the players. However, following a deal reached in early July (which included a salary cap), both parties to the dispute as well as the fans nervously looked forward to the fall to see what the future of the sport would be at the professional level. The positive effect of rule changes designed to increase scoring, numerous personnel moves including the draft of Sidney "Sid the Kid" Crosby to Mario Lemieux's Pittsburgh Penguins, and healthy attendance (recent reports have put NHL arenas at 91% capacity overall) have quelled concerns thus far, even if the league does not have a TV deal with a major US network. Conversely, the fallout from the dispute has not been kind to the NHLPA, and due to internal dissension, the players' union currently stands in disarray.