No regular season. No playoffs. No Stanley Cup. And somehow, life in Canada still went on. If there had been no labor dispute between the owners and players, Canadians everywhere would have been enthralled in the NHL playoffs at this very moment. On this, a Saturday night, the beloved Toronto Maple Leafs might have even been playing a meaningful game at the Air Canada Centre against one of their many conference rivals. Sadly, the reality is that NHL hockey vanished from sight this year, and as the saying goes, "Out of sight, out of mind." But ironically, the game Canadians never thought they could do without has a worthy substitute in - of all places - the NHL's minor leagues.

Instead of abandoning hockey altogether, Canadians have adapted. They turned to the breeding ground for professional hockey around the world: Canadian junior hockey. The London Knights and other junior teams across the country have provided more than enough frozen entertainment to quench die-hard fans' appetites. The most recent example is the Memorial Cup, which was being watched by record numbers of people. Fans tuning in to see superstar-in-the-making Sidney Crosby or the record-setting London Knights came away not only impressed, but perhaps won over.

Seldom do fans get treated to the all-out hustle and team-first play shown by these fine athletes. Veteran NHLers, be they from Canada, Sweden, or Russia, rarely exhibit the passion and emotion that the juniors have demonstrated over the course of the season, and lately in the fight for the (Memorial) Cup. If the lack of an NHL season has taught Canadian hockey fans anything, it's that there is much to be learned from the players who competed this May in London. The humble demeanor of these young men has certainly not gone unnoticed. While many of them stand to make millions in the coming years, they were putting it all on the line for the love of the game, for the betterment of their teams, and as hard as it is to believe, for fun.

These are the players young children should grow up emulating, if not only on the ice, but off of it as well. Comparing the demeanor of veteran NHL bad boys like Brett Hull or Jeremy Roenick to their younger counterparts, such as Sidney Crosby or Corey Perry, makes the choice of 'role model' obvious. Once the million-dollar contracts are signed, along with millions more in endorsements, professional athletes tend to grow up astonishingly fast.

If the NHL does indeed resume play in the fall, the backlash might last a long time. This country has got along without NHL hockey, and with many discovering junior hockey, the already-diminutive NHL audiences might be shrinking. But for a short period of time, the Memorial Cup proved to be a very worthy substitute. It went down as one of the greatest Memorial Cup tournaments ever, won by one of the greatest assembly of players ever (London's Knights), who capped off a record-setting season by beating the most talented player in junior hockey (Marc-Antoine Pouliot? Er, no... Sidney Crosby) to take home the biggest prize in junior hockey. With talent like this, Canadians might be looking forward to a different kind of Cup final in 2006.