"I stand here today to say that we owe it to hockey's fans to achieve an economic system that will result in affordable ticket prices and stable, competitive franchises. The very future of our game is at stake, and the NHL's owners are united as never before, determined to do everything humanly possible to bring hockey's economic system into the 21st century. We have no other choice."

With those words, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman triggered the current owners' lockout, putting the 2004-05 season – and the future of the game – on hold.

Though Bettman made the announcement on Sept. 15, insiders and media pundits, not to mention Bob Goodenow and the NHLPA, could see the lockout coming from miles away.

The league tipped its hand in February when Arthur Levitt, the longest-serving chairman of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, released his study on the state of the NHL's finances, a study that supported Bettman's long-standing claim that the league is haemorrhaging big money.

The union balked at Levitt's report, and the two sides went back and forth in negotiations: the NHL calling for a salary cap, the Players' Association championing the idea of revenue sharing.

Over the ensuing months, the term "cost certainty" became forever enshrined in hockey's vocabulary, as players and owners stood on opposite sides of the philosophical divide over the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement, with fans helplessly caught in the middle.

As the year drew to a close, there was no deal to be struck, keeping the doors at 30 NHL arenas closed.

And with no end in sight to the labour stalemate comes a sobering reality: no more Saturday nights spent watching Hockey Night in Canada. No chance to see if the Calgary Flames could make another run at the Stanley Cup. No more Original-Six grudge matches between the Leafs and Habs. No more hockey.

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Bye-bye Bambino. This time, there were no Johnny Pesky-like blunders, Bill Buckner-like bungles or Bucky Dent-like homers for the long-suffering Red Sox Nation to endure.

After 86 years of labouring under the so-called Babe Ruth curse, the Red Sox finally exorcised Ruth’s ghost with a convincing sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. It took some major heroics for the Sox to win their first championship since 1918.

Down 3-0 in the AL championship against the New York Yankees, the Sox staged one of the most remarkable comebacks in sports history, winning the next four games to eliminate their old nemesis.

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The Summer Olympics are usually rife with drama, heroics, scandal and intrigue. The 2004 Athens Games were no exception. The event was preceded by widespread concerns over security and readiness. It began under the shadow of a major domestic doping scandal. And it finished with a bizarre spectator interference incident in the men's marathon.

But sandwiched between the sideshows was a memorable showcase of athleticism. Canada hauled in 12 medals, including golden performances by gymnast Kyle Shewfelt, kayaker Adam van Koeverden and cyclist Lori Ann Muenzer.

From Perdita Felicien's dignity in defeat to Michael Phelps' phenomenal eight-medal effort, the Athens Games created so many memorable stories, it requires its own top-10 list.

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Drugs have always been an issue in sports, but banned substances landed on the front page in 2004 with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) scandal.

In February, BALCO head Victor Conte, along with three other men, were indicted for conspiring to distribute illegal performance-enhancing drugs to top athletes. The names linked to BALCO are a who's who of the sports world. Some of the athletes implicated include baseball sluggers Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, as well as sprinters Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones.

According to documents leaked to the media, Giambi told a grand jury in Dec. 2003 he took steroids and a human growth hormone, while Bonds testified he used substances provided by his trainer, but didn't know they were steroids.

It appears the drug scandal won't die down in 2005. According to Conte – now being sued by Marion Jones – nearly 50 per cent of baseball players are using steroids.

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Hockey violence has long been a hot-button subject in Canada. The issue skated into the national spotlight in early March when Vancouver Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi sucker-punched Colorado Avalanche rookie Steve Moore, sending him crashing to the ice.

Bertuzzi's attack from behind put Moore in the hospital with broken vertebrae in his neck and a concussion. It also fueled a nationwide debate about on-ice hockey justice and violence in sport.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman suspended Bertuzzi for the rest of the NHL season and made the hulking forward apply for re-instatement before he can return to the game. The Canucks were also slapped with a $250,000 fine.

The incident then moved beyond the hockey rink with a police investigation and eventually to the courts. Bertuzzi was charged with assault causing bodily harm. He has pleased not guilty and his trial is slated to begin in the New Year.

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It was one of the most exciting runs in Stanley Cup history.

After seven years of missing the playoffs, the Flames repaid their fans in full, going on a magical two-month odyssey that lasted all of the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.

The Vancouver Canucks, Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks just couldn't keep up to the perseverance of the Flames. Every series seemed like a battle between David and Goliath.

The unexpected journey not only turned them into Canada's team, but bolstered civic pride to level rarely seen in the country. Unfortunately, it didn't last. The Flames couldn't pull off another upset against Tampa Bay, losing 2-1 in Game 7 of the Final.

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Canadian baseball fans finally said au revoir to the Montreal Expos in 2004. Of course, there weren't many fans left when Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig made the announcement the Expos were moving down south to Washington, D.C.

Expos fans knew that their franchise was living on borrowed time ever since the league tried to contract it in 2001 and then purchased it from disgruntled owner Jeffrey Loria a year later. The franchise was never really able to recover from the 1994 strike.

That was the year when the Expos – sporting a league-best 74-40 record – were forced to shut down their season when the players' union walked off the field. The Expos, unable to keep up with escalating player salaries, traded most of their stable of talent the next season.

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The Canadian Football League had a banner year in 2004. Attendance and ratings were on the rise once again, but nowhere were the gains greater than in Southern Ontario.

The CFL's outlook in Hamilton and Toronto was bleak just one year earlier. The Tiger-Cats won just one game in 2003 and the Argonauts flirted with bankruptcy. New ownership changed everything.

Real estate builder Howard Sokolowski and businessman David Cynamon purchased an Argos club in 2003 that faced a financial crisis. The Tiger-Cats also found new ownership late that year in computer billionaire Bob Young.

Personnel changes, stadium improvements and a fresh attitude buoyed the Ticats to an impressive 9-8-1 record and a playoff berth. The team's attendance also jumped 87 per cent to an average of 27,834 fans per game. The Ticats were once again a hot ticket in Steeltown The Argos also had a healthy increase at the gate, vaulting up 71 per cent to 25,813 spectators per game at SkyDome. The team also announced plans to build a new stadium at York University. Oh yeah, they also won a Grey Cup championship.

The CFL's success stretched beyond Ontario. The B.C. Lions' attendance increased 13 per cent and culminated with 55,227 spectators at the Western final at B.C. Place. The second-deck filler helped the league shatter a 20-year-old playoff attendance mark - 181,717 fans over four games.

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Who could have predicted that Greece would be the last team standing at soccer's Euro 2004?

Traditional superpowers such as France, Italy, England, Spain and Germany were considered the odds-on-favourites to win the soccer tournament that ranks only behind the World Cup in terms of importance and prestige.

Prior to Euro 2004, Greece had only qualified for two major tournaments (Euro 1980 and the 1994 World Cup), and each time it bowed out miserably without a win and on the back of some heavy defeats.

Greece was listed as 80-1 longshots at the start of the tournament. It more than made up for its dubious history, posting upsets over host Portugal in the tournament opener, defending champions France in the quarter-finals and the unbeaten Czech Republic in the semis before again beating the hosts in the final.

It may sound like hyperbole to call its championship victory a miracle, but when you consider Greece's lack of pedigree in international soccer, "miracle" aptly describes it.

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Ever hear the one about a fan going to a basketball game and a wrestling match breaks out? That's exactly what happened on Nov. 19 when one of the worst brawls in professional sports erupted near the end of the Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons game in Detroit. Taunting fans and temperamental players exchanged blows in the stands and on the court. Beer, ice, popcorn and even a chair were thrown during the melee.

Four players were handed lengthy suspensions – Indiana's Ron Artest (banned for the season), Stephen Jackson (30 games), Jermaine O'Neal (25 games) and Detroit's Ben Wallace (six games). League commissioner David Stern called the incident "shocking, repulsive and inexcusable – a humiliation for everyone associated with the NBA."

Oakland County (Michigan) Prosecutor David Gorcyca agreed with Stern, laying criminal charges on Artest and four of his teammates, as well as five Pistons fans for their involvement in the brawl, which is still hotly discussed today.

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