6 Most Creative Ways NHL Teams and Players Are Dealing with the Lockout

The lockout is frustrating to players, coaches, teams and fans who want the NHL to get back to business.

The lockout has been going on since Sept. 15. A number of players have decided to play in European leagues. This makes sense because it brings in revenue while their NHL paychecks have stopped, and it also helps keep players in shape.

It also carries risk because injuries are always a possibility.

But not all players have gone overseas. Additionally, coaches and team officials have largely stayed home for the duration of the lockout.

Here's a look at six of the ways some NHLers are spending their time away from the NHL.

Claude Julien

Once a coach, always a coach.

Claude Julien has coaching in his blood.

The Boston Bruins head coach wants nothing more than to go out on the ice with his team and have a 90-minute practice session.

That's not going to happen any time soon. But Julien needed the lift of coaching an energetic and enthusiastic hockey team.

So did he go to the minor leagues so he could coach wannabe Bruins?

No, he participated in a youth hockey raffle and offered his services to the youth team that got lucky enough to win the drawing.

Julien, who coached the Stanley Cup champions in 2011, has spent part of the lockout coaching youth hockey players.

P.K. Subban

Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban is going a bit bonkers without having a chance to play in the NHL during the lockout.

However, Subban is not staying idle.

Subban is putting his verbal skills on display. Known for his chirping on the ice, Subban spent some time talking in front of the television cameras.

It might be expected that a hockey player would be involved in the sports report.

Instead, the animated Subban gave the weather forecast on the CTV broadcast above.

Hint: Not bad, but don't quit your day job.

Scott Hartnell and Claude Giroux

Everybody knows about playoff beards.

When a team makes the playoffs, the majority of the players often refuse to shave until the team finishes its playoff run.

Many of the Los Angeles Kings looked like Man Mountain Dean by the time they lifted the Stanley Cup following their victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Playoff beards are traditional.

How about lockout beards?

Scott Hartnell and Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers pledged to grow lockout beards until the work stoppage comes to an end.

Everybody has to do something with their time.

Steven Stamkos

Steven Stamkos can't get away from hockey.

Even though he can't play in the NHL right now, he is participating in charity games.

He played in one in Atlantic City, N.J. to benefit those whose lives were devastated by Hurricane Sandy. He will be playing in another charity game in Toronto to benefit the NHLPA's Goals and Dreams fund.

Other players who will also play include Logan Couture, Dion Phaneuf, Phil Kessel and James Neal.

Sidney Crosby

You've probably seen the commercial in which Sidney Crosby and former teammate Max Talbot shoot hockey pucks into an open clothes dryer.

While it's somewhat destructive, it gives you a pretty good idea of what Crosby can do with the puck.

It also lets you know how much he loves the game.

During the lockout, Crosby let his love of the game show by playing goalie in an Ohio street hockey league.

Nobody knew it was Crosby in net until the ref came down to Crosby's end during a stoppage to retrieve the ball and he noticed a familiar glint in the goalie's eye.

According to the Toronto Star, Crosby posted a shutout over a team called "Flyers Suck."

Michael Ryder

Golf has the Ryder Cup to decide superiority between American and European golfers.

The hockey lockout has the Michael Ryder Cup.

Ryder, the former Canadien and Bruin sniper who now skates for the Dallas Stars, is a bit of an offbeat character. In the video above, he dropped and dented the Stanley Cup when the took it to his native Newfoundland in the summer of 2011 following the Bruins' Stanley Cup triumph.

The Michael Ryder Cup is a creation from the fertile mind of CBC columnist Tim Wharmsby.

In the Michael Ryder Cup, Wharmsby put together a series of David Letterman-style grudge matches between hockey and non-hockey combatants.

Some of the bouts included John Tortorella vs. Peter DeBoer and Barack Obama vs. Tim Thomas.

No word on whether Michael Ryder will hand out an imaginary trophy to the winner, but if he does, the guess is that it will be dropped on the ground at one point or another.