After 119 stress-filled days of emptiness, boredom and migraines, the National Hockey League finally ended the lockout and the season has kicked off a 48-game season. 

Some people really don’t care that the Neanderthal sport is going to be back on television, for it may take precious airtime away from basketball games – I get that.

Those same people complaining about the sport’s return don’t understand how special this sport has become for me and millions of hockey fans in North America.

I vividly remember attending my first professional hockey game when I was just 4 years old. I went with the rest of my young family all decked out in Sharks gear. My dad even bought me my first hockey puck and a little hockey stick I could carry around. I was awesome.

I remember where we sat, the smell of the fresh layer of ice and I will never forget the foghorn’s sonic blast echoing throughout the packed HP Pavilion arena with the San Jose Sharks‘ first goal of the game.

Growing up slightly more than seven miles from the arena, I would continue to attend Sharks games consistently throughout my life.

Did I ever play the game? No, I was a California kid too focused on playing basketball, baseball and other warm-climate sports to take part in a game with few rinks in a 50-mile radius. Despite me never taking a hockey stick to the ice myself, I never took the great game of hockey for granted.

Being from the Bay Area, I was always close to San Francisco Giants and 49ers games as well as Oakland A’s, Raiders and Warriors games. Having the chance to attend Sharks games was icing on the cake (no pun intended).

In 2004, the NHL held another lockout – this time cancelling the entire 82-game season. Owners and players couldn’t agree on how to split the millions and millions of dollars while every hockey fan in North America sat and waited for the arguing to stop.

I was pretty upset due to the fact that the Warriors were the only other team of mine playing from January to April. The Warriors were terrible in 2004 and I wanted my dose of hockey.

Today we are lucky to say there was a Sharks game on last night against the Anaheim Ducks – a heated California rivalry.

Although the stupidest arguments between millionaires cancelled 41.5 percent of the season including 510 regular season games league-wide, I am just happy it’s on right now. In fact, it will be on for all games, every season until the current agreement contract expires right before the 2023 season.

Ten more years of good old-fashioned hockey has been secured in writing, folks. Time to get off the “schneid” and support your local hockey club.

Each day the lockout continued, the league lost $18-20 million in revenue. After it was all said and done, roughly $20 billion was lost while league employees were either laid off or received significant pay cuts.

The league and players need the support of fans to return to the level it was before the lockout in order to continue the growth of one of the oldest organized games in the world. 

For the sake of the sport, go attend a game to see what all the fuss is about. If you experienced anything like my first game, the odds are you’ll be back for more.

Russell can be reached on Twitter at @PrestonSHsports