We've reached the point in the NHL labor negotiations where fans are making an effort to do whatever they can with the hope of preventing what would be the third NHL lockout in the past 18 years.
It's a nice effort, but in the end will no doubt prove to be futile.
Still, that didn't stop Janne Makkonen, a 21-year-old freelance editor from Finland, from putting together an eight-minute video to rally fans.
It certainly caught the attention of several NHL players on Twitter, including Gabriel Landeskog, David Perron, Scottie Upshall, Logan Couture, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Milan Lucic and Braden Holtby, as well as the NHLPA itself (which isn't much a surprise given that Makkonen admits in his video description that it's strongly biased toward the NHLPA).
It's a great video, and it's certainly rallied fans on Twitter (check out the #nolockout hashtag), but it's unfortunately not going to make any difference in whether the NHL season starts on time. Only the owners and players can settle that. Nobody else.
The NHL knows the fans will come back no matter how long a work stoppage lasts. They always come back.
In related news: According to Chris Johnston of the Canadian Press, the NHL and NHLPA both report that there are no current plans to resume talks.
The NHL collective bargaining agreement expires on Sept. 15.
We're going to need more videos.
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