Thanks to former ‘purse holder’ Mike Fisher, end of NHL lockout is People’s top story

The NHL lockout is over, and the news is spreading. On Monday, it spread to a strange place: the top story on People.com.

That would be thanks to Carrie Underwood, who turned the end of the NHL lockout into celebrity gossip when she tweeted a lamentation about losing her husband to that sport he occasionally plays.

From People.com, that bustling hockey hub:

And you thought the casual fan wasn't coming back. They will if they're married to an NHLer. Suck on that, pundits.

The "purse holder" crack is a reference to one of the most unheralded moments of the NHL lockout: when Underwood won the American Music Award for Favourite Country Album and handed her clutch to a slightly embarrassed Fisher, who made sure to hold it up for the cameras, as if to say, Yes, this is what I'm doing right now.

Here's video of the moment, although if you ask me, it's way better as a gif.

The American Music Awards were on November 18th. The Nashville Predators' original schedule saw them in St. Louis versus the Blues on the 17th and in Montreal versus the Canadiens on the 19th. Basically, if the NHL hadn't cancelled the season, Fisher would have been on a plane on the other side of the world during the AMAs and Underwood would simply have placed her purse on the empty seat. But, thanks to his brief unemployment, he got to be there to hold Carrie Underwood's purse.

And thanks to this screencap, we can actually pinpoint the exact moment Mike Fisher wanted the lockout to end most of all:

But it was all worth it, because now Fisher and the NHL are a part of People.com's top story.

Although it's not like you have to do much to land amongst People's top stories. I mean, all this Bethenny Frankel woman had to do was walk her dog, and I'm pretty sure she just works at a Chevron.

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney