What was supposed to be a party celebrating the return of "Oilers" to "ice" has now been scuttled in favour of a party celebrating a "lockout" and the continued heartbreak of hockey fans everywhere. But there are a handful of reasons to attend which we will discuss after the jump.

It may seem counter intuitive to head down to the Pint Downtown on what should be opening weekend of the NHL season to mark the occasion of absolutely nothing happening in the talks between the NHL and NHLPA. "Why should I go down there when I can sit at home and be perfectly miserable at home?" might go the thinking.

Never one to let our favourite sport dying a slow death of a thousand cuts go unnoticed, we have cooked up a party with some cool stuff happening and here is why you should attend.

Part of the contract that the Nation Network has signed with the Pint Canada involves raising money for an awesome charity Earth Group. At this year’s draft party back in July, not only did we all have such a good time that a stranger in the Pint remarked aloud "man the Oilers fans here tonight are even more crazy than usual" we also raised over $2,500 for Earth Group.

They are then able to use this money to feed 10,000 children. You read that right – $2,500 in the hands of this fantastic organization can feed almost half of the population of Spruce Grove.

This type of money needs to be raised again and again and again so we will be damned if we aren’t going to continue to try even if there is a lockout.

At the Draft Party we released 100 Nation Tees with the proceeds going to the Earth Group. Those that don’t sell are placed in the NationGear Vault in Wanye Manor to be released for sale after they have appreciated astronomically in value. Don’t want to spend $4000 on a tee shirt that will be years out of date? This is your chance.

For $20 you can get a Nation Lockout Tee Shirt, a $25 Oodle Noodle Gift Certificate and a GC to the Pint as well. Oh and Nation Stickers if you are in the market. That’s a quadruple helping of Winning Pie if ever there was one.

Despite all the dire warnings on twitter from people threatening to buy 23% less Oilers related merchandise for the next three seasons when the game resumes – there really isn’t much of an organized response to the lockout on the part of the fans. We aren’t in the camp of either the NHL or the NHLPA but think that us average Joes are the only people getting dicked around here.

So the machine at Nation HQ has arranged for some of the mainstream media to be outside the Pint Downtown at 6 PM on Friday looking to cover the story of frustrated hockey fans protesting the lockout. Whether or not anyone actually shows up to talk to them is an entirely different matter.

So if you want to have your voice heard ALL THE WAY IN NYC BY THOSE RICH FAT CATS – you are probably screwed. If you want Edmonton media to cover a busy protest that is serving drinks after – this is your chance. You can have your own press conference on the steps of the Pint Downtown.

*whistles so loudly the lockout ends*

Ironically the lockout is going to provide Oilers fans with a far less heartbreaking October-December than we have been subjected to these past 5 years. We have partied our way through a 3 year tour of duty at the bottom of the league – why not party when the Oil are looking like a lock to go undefeated through Christmas 2012?

Exactly.

Even though hockey is on the LTIR that doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun. The Pint is still filled with babes, the booze flows like water at a garden watering party and they have a new mascot shown above wittily named Pinty McBeaverton by Nation Readers.

So if you need a reason to get up off the couch and go meet a gigantic beaver this is it.

Lockout protest at 6 PM sharp, Friday October 12th at the Pint Downtown in Edmonton. Come one come all!