With no hockey to watch, what are Canadians to do?

David Rosenberg jokes about it in his note today:

WHAT TO DO WITHOUT HOCKEY?

We made a caustic remark a while back that it would be reasonable to assume that Canada will experience a surge in the birth rate come summer and fall of next year. I mean...it stands to reason.

Rosenberg also makes some sensible economic conclusions:

All kidding aside, patterns of spending will be influenced, one would think, especially as it pertains to beer sales as well as the three P's — pizza, potato chips and pretzels. Pubs, grocery chains and drug stores (many of which look like food stores) are likely to take a bit of a hit this winter.

And hockey lockouts aren't without precedent:

But that in turns means more pocket change to spend on other things. And we do have the other two prolonged lockouts — 1994-95 and 2004-05 — to draw inferences from. Retail sales actually fared quite well — roughly a 7% annualized clip in both cases. While food and beverage stores did lag (3% average growth) and health/personal care as well (-1.4% on average...likely due to potato chips and soft drinks staying on the shelf), guys seemed to have dealt with their depression by going to the auto dealerships (13% average growth in vehicle sales) and spending their new spare time by fixing up the house because home improvement and related purchases jumped at over a 17% average annual rate. Instead of watching hockey, it looks as though video games became the new fix on Saturday nights because electronics sales rose at a decent annualized pace of 7.5% on average.

It's unclear what the hockey lockout will mean for the U.S. economy.

SEE ALSO: David Rosenberg Brought Down The House With This Depressing Presentation At A Conference This Week >