Daily Cupcakes - Links from around the unlocked out NHL - January 9th, 2013

Colorado Avalanche's Ryan O`Byrne and Tyson Barrie are happy the lockout is done.

Victoria’s Ryan O’Byrne of the Colorado Avalanche and Mark Stuart from the Winnipeg Jets — plying the blueline for the Florida Everblades of the ECHL during the NHL lockout — were in the midst of a road trip in Charleston, South Carolina, when they heard the news.

The pair rushed back overnight to arrive in Fort Myers, Florida, early Sunday and hurriedly packed to leave for their anticipated NHL training camps.

CBC.ca takes a look at the shortened 1995 season.

With Marc Crawford taking over from Pierre Page behind the bench, the Nordiques responded with five wins to start the season and were victorious in 12 of their first 13 games.

Quebec never looked back, winning 30 of 48 contests and topping the NHL with 185 goals, 30 of which came from Owen Nolan, who also led the league with eight game-winning goals. Sakic led the Nordiques with 62 points in 47 games while Forsberg was named the NHL’s top rookie after posting 35 assists and 50 points.

The NHL is looking at a marketing guru to bring fans back.

Now that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the owners have pulled back from complete destruction of the season, it is up to John Collins to pick up the pieces.

The league’s chief operating officer and marketing guru has the toughest job in hockey now, along with every executive on most of the league’s 30 teams who is in charge of selling tickets. Collins became the fair-haired boy among the NHL governors due to his success in repairing the damage of the previous lockout when he was hired away from the NFL in 2006.