A little while ago a CBC producer named Marcy Cuttler contacted several site managers with SB Nation's NHL affiliates and asked for a hand in some preliminary work in crafting a documentary. After speaking with Marcy on the phone and sending some emails back and forth, we've decided to begin by asking you, our readers, to participate.

Marcy poses the following:

I am a television producer/director with CBC Television. I work on the program "Doc Zone".



While we are keeping our fingers crossed that the NHL season can be saved, we are, nevertheless, bracing for the possibility of a winter without hockey. Should that happen, we are exploring a documentary idea. Our focus would not be on the labour dispute, the economics or any of the negotiations at all.



Instead we want to take a look at how Canadians are coping without the national game. It would speak to our psyche, our emotional connection to hockey, and it would be a wry, affectionate perspective



So..we want to know what people are doing without their NHL fix. Have you taken up a new hobby? Kick start an old hobby? If you're part of a family of hockey fans, what are all of you doing now? If you're in business, how are you meeting the challenge? If you use the hockey season to entertain clients, what are the alternatives?



We're open to all ideas. We're not trying to make light of the labour dispute. Rather through these stories we hope to show that even if hockey is gone, it is not forgotten.

As you all know by now, personally the lockout has coincided with me taking over the heavy lifting at EOTP, as well as becoming the site's new Managing Editor. While it may seem like an ill-timed move for a hockey site, it's actually worked out quite well so far.

Not having hockey around hasn't made anything easy, but it has forced me to come up with new ideas constantly, and I believe it has expanded my thought process when it comes to writing. Several people have been big helps in coming up with ideas, namely Laura, who helps me brainstorm in SMS conversations constantly, and a friend of mine named James.

In anticipation of the the lockout, as well as a desire to expand EOTP further than most other Habs blogs, I brought in Chris Ive and Justin Dahan to cover the Hamilton Bulldogs, and with their coverage and a bunch of young prospects joining Hamilton, I've been more interested in the Bulldogs than ever before, so I'm watching much more AHL hockey than I usually would.

Due to the nature of this job and my other job being hockey related, my focus hasn't really changed much, but I do feel like it is being honed, which is the thinnest of silver linings in this whole collective bargaining mess.

So what have you guys been doing? As much as this is for the CBC documentary, now that the question has been asked, I'm truly interested. This could be an incredible examination of how Canadian culture is influenced by the NHL.