The 7 most immediate questions now that NHL lockout is over

Sunday was set to be Day 113 of the dumb, stupid NHL lockout. While there will be time to examine the most senseless work stoppage in the history of sports, we've focused enough on boardroom talk; let us move to matters that don't require us to consult a lawyer.

It's been a while since we've done that. You remember Jaromir Jagr is in Dallas now, right? Zach Parise and Ryan Suter and members of the Minnesota Wild? And Rick Nash isn't in Columbus anymore? It's been that long. The Staples Center rafters are itching to raise another banner.

Details on the 2013 NHL season will be announced in the next few days and with training camps set to open up later this week things this time around will be a sprint, not a marathon. In the meantime, let's take a look at some of the biggest questions now that the lockout is finally over.

Even during a lockout, when no transactions could be made, Luongo could not escape the never-ending trade rumors that have followed him. Sportsnet's John Shannon reported in October that Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke and Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillies had agreed on a deal that would send the netminder to Toronto once the lockout ended.

Well, here we are. The CBA is set to be ratified in a few days and then player movement can restart. Does Luongo have a bag packed already? Cory Schneider signed a three-year deal with the Canucks in June and the Maple Leafs could really use a goaltender. Or is Luongo's presence too vital for the Canucks in a 48-52 game season to part with? Is it a match made in heaven or another rumor gone bad? If the deal is indeed true, let's hope Burke doesn't tell Luongo to change anything about his fantastic Twitter account.

Looks like the Los Angeles Kings won't have to worry about experiencing the dreaded "Stanley Cup hangover", huh? Every team has had a long enough off season that the only question will be who is in the best shape at the start? Many players spent the lockout either in the minor leagues or in Europe, but plenty of others have just been skating on their own with teammates. Teams like Edmonton and Carolina, who have had a number of youngsters playing in the AHL during the lockout, could shoot right out of the gate. Same for those with strong presences in net. With teams playing a compressed schedule, the need for a strong backup will be incredibly important.

Zach Parise, Ryan Suter. Rick Nash. James van Riemsdyk. Luke Schenn. Jaromir Jagr. Jordan Staal. Those are just a few of the bigger names who will have a new address this season. There won't be a lot of time for introductions and chemistry building on their new rosters, but these players will be relied upon to help lead their individual teams to success. Parise and Suter, along with Nash will be the most-watched "players with new teams" considering what the Minnesota Wild invested in the pair and the package that the New York Rangers gave up for the former Columbus Blue Jacket franchise face. In the Rangers' case, they're Stanley Cup contenders and Nash will be looked upon as the "final piece". For Parise and Suter, they may not be Cup contenders yet, but they acquisitions signaled the beginning of change in the Wild organization, once owner Craig Leipold is hoping pays off in a title.

The vitriol directed at Bettman from members of the NHLPA was unbelievable. From Kris Versteeg labeling him and NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly as "cancers" to Ian White calling Bettman an "idiot" to the numerous other NHLers taking shots at the NHL leadership, the emotions of these CBA negotiations were incredibly high all throughout the process. No one reached Chris Chelios levels of comments, but had this gone on a little longer maybe it would have. So where does that relationship go from here?

A cooling off period is in order and maybe once the games begin the hate will level off, but after a contentious few months, is there any salvaging the "mistrust" between the players and Bettman? He gets booed louder and louder every year when he hands out the Stanley Cup every June, but could you imagine the decibel level when the commissioner walks out on to the winning team's ice this year?

Teams will be able to spend up to $70.2 million (pro-rated) on their roster for this shortened season, with the cap floor set at $44 million. Beginning with next season, the ceiling will lower to $64.3 million. As of right now, eight teams -- Boston, Minnesota, Vancouver, Calgary, Philadelphia, San Jose, Chicago, and Buffalo -- are all over that number, according to CapGeek. Factor in teams being able to use up to two compliance buyouts after June with that money not counting against the salary cap and you can count on an active off-season with plenty of buzz. There might actually be a "Free Agent Frenzy" for once.

While the players and the league fought it out in a boardroom (and through the media), the fans, as usual, were left out in the cold wondering when their favorite NHL teams would return to action. Going through a lockout for the second time in eight years has potentially broken the relationship between some fans and the NHL. It remains to be seen what attendance numbers will look like when the games return, but the damage has been done and it's now up to both the league and players to work together to bring back those lost fans and rekindle the love from the diehards that have grown disgusted yet again.

There's talk that NHL GameCenter Live will be free for this season as an enticement. That's nice and all, but getting butts in the seats with lower ticket prices and major community efforts by players should be the focus to repairing relationships going forward.

 The Hummer slalomed as we sped towards the sea west of Misrata. The dark asphalt was covered with sand on the edges, and I prayed Taha could keep the car from sliding out of control as it swung side to side on the twisting road. I kept thinking about what my father had taught me about a tire’s contact patch and how small it is; his father had been a champion racecar driver in Havana in 1920. I’ll never get to see Havana I thought sadly, convinced Taha was about to roll the car.

A white Mazda pickup appeared over a rise, coming straight at us. Taha expertly pulled right and slid the Hummer around him, lining us up on the sea road. We sat there for a second, staring at two T-55 tanks, burnt hulks that sat guard on the road like ghosts. Taha sat crouched in the driver’s seat, his sunglasses barely over the steering wheel as sweat covered his brow.

 I was back in the US after two trips to Libya in three months when I pitched Dan Rather with the idea of doing a documentary on Muammar Qaddafi’s death. I used to be one of the UN’s war crimes investigators in Libya after the war. I primarily looked at NATO’s bombing. But we were short staffed, and so I was also given the lead on investigating Qaddafi’s death. The UN wanted to know if he was “EJE’d” or Extra-judicially Executed as they say in international legal circles. It was an odd request I thought. Who gives a shit if he was EJE’d I asked? Should we give the guy a medal? If someone popped Bashar al-Assad earlier in Syria wouldn’t we all just be better off? Maybe so, but this was serious stuff so I went about it seriously doing two trips to Libya—November 2011 and January 2012—along with a team of about a dozen war crimes investigators.

Working for the UN is funny. Everyone thinks we have some great karmic authority. It is as if people say, oh, it’s the UN, how can we help? The reality is sometimes you show up at a site and an old bespectacled Libyan in fatigues and a beret tells you, “Take your fucking paper and shove it up your ass,” in perfect English. We drive around in huge white Land Rovers that scream “HERE I AM, SHOOT ME” and we are often confined to base for security reasons while our colleagues and friends in human rights organizations and the press call us from shisha bars on the beach in Tripoli telling us “It’s safe. Get your ass out here.”

We flew to Libya via Rome in November, shortly after Qaddafi was killed. There were 12 investigators, a chief of security, and a close protection guy that had the guns. The chief of security was a massive dark-skinned Brazilian and the close protection guy was a dashingly handsome Tunisian who never stopped smiling. We flew to Rome from Geneva when the Italian police showed up. It was a buffet of heavily accented English.

 We flew on one of the oldest MD-80s on the planet. The MD-80 has a staircase in the rear of the aircraft. Fabulous design. The ass of the plane is a huge cone that just swings aside to let the stairs down. The cone on this plane didn’t seem to seal great. There was a constant whistling in the plane and it was icy cold inside.

We carried blue UN passports called “LPs” or Laissez Passer, literally LET PASS. They are a curious document that not every country accepts. I took mine out at passport control and faced a young man in mismatched camouflage: blue navy pattern pants with desert shirt. Rebel chic, I thought. “Please mister,” he asked, “which is the Libyan VISA?” I stared at him a second, flipped past a half dozen or so orange and green striped Afghan VISAs and finally found the blue-green Libyan one.

We drove to the UN base and my jaw hit the floor. Every UN facility has to be MOSS certified by meeting the Minimum Operational Security Standards. Part of that means they need to be able to secure a compound, and the only one they could find in Tripoli was a five-star beach resort. It was stunning. I had a lovely villa. There was a state of the art gym, swimming pool, Jacuzzi, and sauna. Coming from Afghanistan where I had lived in relative squalor I thought I had finally found a mission where life could be as good as the work.

As we prepared to set out the next day we all gathered for the morning security briefing. The Brazilian reviewed where everyone would be and when and made sure we had our phones set and radios on.

“What’s the freek?” I asked, wanting to know what the frequency was for the radio in the Land Rovers. In dangerous places like Afghanistan where cell phones may not cover everything you need a way to communicate so handheld radios are crucial. But they only have a range of a mile or so. To remedy this the UN places repeaters throughout the country and every vehicle has a powerful radio that is always in touch with base via the repeaters. No matter where you go you always know that radio works and your life may depend on it.