It’s Friday night in downtown Pittsburgh. Craig Palombine, bar manager of Souper Bowl — a bar and restaurant on Fifth Avenue — calmly keeps to his post, his dozen or so customers not demanding much. A few of them sit at the bar, others in small groups at nearby tables. Election coverage and NBA basketball occupy several surrounding television screens.

But something’s missing.

The Pittsburgh Penguins should be playing the Washington Capitals in just a few minutes. Instead, the National Hockey League remains locked out, and the stalemate of a labor dispute between the players’ union and the teams’ owners continues to drain sales.

For Palombine’s Souper Bowl and several other bars and restaurants located near Consol Energy Center — the Penguins’ home arena — this lockout spells disaster.

“Tonight I might close the bar at 8 or 9 o’clock,” said Palombine, a junior at Duquesne University. “If there’s a Pens game, we’re here until at least 2 a.m.”

This lockout is the league’s third in 19 years, the most recent one occurring during the 2004-2005 season. Hope remains that this lockout won’t lead to another lost season, as was the case previously. However, Commissioner Gary Bettman recently canceled all games through Jan. 1, 2013.

New Year’s Day traditionally marks the annual NHL Winter Classic, when two teams compete at an outdoor venue. This year, the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs were slated to play at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. But that game won’t be played either.

The bars and restaurants that depend heavily on the revenue generated from hockey games have taken drastic measures to remain profitable. Most employ a smaller staff, which affects many student workers.

“Hockey night we’ll have six or seven servers upstairs, and we’ll have three bartenders up here. Downstairs we’ll have two bartenders, four servers. We’ll have a full cooking staff,” Palombine said.

Palombine isn’t the only student facing shorter hours because of the dispute.

Pete Oliver, owner of Café Fifth, located a half block from the Consol Energy Center and a couple doors down from Souper Bowl, said he had to cut about 10 to 12 people from his staff.

“Many of them are college students. They’re students that live around here so they don’t have to worry about going home at Thanksgiving or Christmas,” Oliver said.

Management at a T.G.I. Friday’s located next to the Consol Energy Center chose not to comment on the situation.

Palombine said that he’s seen a tremendous decrease in his hours, which directly translates to a drop in pay.

“During the hockey season I’ll make anywhere from two to three grand a month. You’re working two to three hours before a game and two to three hours after a game, and you’re making 200 to 300 dollars a game,” Palombine said.

Souper Bowl has initiated a Bubble Hockey League tournament Monday nights, complete with drink specials. But Palombine said it won’t generate nearly enough revenue to cover what the restaurant and bar are losing. He estimates that actual hockey games account for at least 60 percent of business.

For Oliver, Pens games account for about one-third of his business, and he said there’s not much he can do in the way of specials or promotions to compensate.

“Who’s going to come down here for a $2 beer? I have no foot traffic without hockey,” Oliver said.

Though students working in the Downtown service industry might be suffering losses, one business is thankful to have Duquesne students to fall back on.

Milano’s Pizzeria, located about a block up from the arena, is lagging without hockey but remains afloat in other ways.

“Now that Duquesne’s back we’re not hurting as bad. Thank goodness that we deliver,” said Terrie Rihm, a cashier and bartender at Milano’s.

Milano’s has six locations throughout Pittsburgh and, like Oliver, Rihm said this location is missing about one-third of its revenue without hockey.

“This location relies most on hockey and Duquesne University,” Rihm said. “We’re working less, we’re making less. The rich get richer, the poor suffer.”

A hockey fan and English writing major at Pitt, junior John Lavanga can relate to Rihm’s frustration and also feels disgusted with the NHL’s stubbornness.

“It comes across as really greedy. It’s hard for the typical fan to relate to a billionaire owner,” Lavanga said.

In the battle between players and owners, Lavanga empathizes with the players.

“I tend to usually come down on the side of the players. Given that Gary Bettman’s been bragging about record profits through the years, it doesn’t really make sense to root for the owners,” Lavanga said.

As a Pitt student, Lavanga said he’s attended three or four games through the student rush program but also listens to coverage of his favorite team, the Vancouver Canucks, on the radio through the NHL mobile application.

Fellow Pitt student and sophomore chemical engineering major Robert Wallace became a hockey fan five years ago, and his fanhood for the Penguins has grown ever since. He’s disappointed to see his favorite sport go away for a while but is finding other ways to feed his sports interests.

“Hockey certainly helped keep me balanced. My one consolation is, Evgeni Malkin is playing really well in Mettalurg, [Russia]. He’s putting up more than a point a game,” said Wallace, referring to the star Penguin’s success on his new team in the Kontinental Hockey League.

“Also, I’ve been watching a lot more English Premier League soccer. That’s sort of my second favorite sport,” Wallace said.

Lavanga enjoys taking in hockey from a home setting, whereas Wallace said he’ll definitely go to a bar for the big games.

“I’d be more likely to go to Hemingway’s or Uncle Jimmy’s. It’s a super yinzer crowd. You get the people who are actually Pens fans,” Wallace said.

Contrary to the management at Downtown spots, owners and managers at several Oakland bars seemed mostly unconcerned with the prospect of a canceled or limited season.

Kevin Connolly, owner of Bootleggers on Semple Street, said, “We really notice an influx more towards the playoffs. Hopefully it’ll get resolved and not affect the whole season.”

The new setup at Bootleggers, which includes front windows that opened up space and contributed to the bar’s increased popularity among students, could also play a role in how the lockout might affect the bar.

Referring to the 2004-2005 lockout, Connolly said, “I don’t think it really affected us all that much, probably a little bit. Now, with the new setup, it would probably be more.”

John Elavsky, the owner of Hemingway’s, another student-frequented bar on Forbes Avenue, sees business through means other than hockey. When asked if the lockout could hurt business, Elavsky said, “No, it won’t, particularly in October, November, December. We’ve got a lot more things going on. Certain games would draw a pretty big group of fans for that night, but it’s not a big deal. Playoff time will hurt for sure. In April, we’ll miss that.”

He insisted that Hemingway’s will manage well and instead, is worried about the bars that rely on hockey more than his.

“I feel really bad for the places Downtown and for the other venues across the country and across the NHL that really depend on that to carry them through,” Elavsky said.

Like management at Souper Bowl, Elavsky has started a Bubble Hockey League in a similar attempt to salvage what he can from the currently lost season.

According to Elavsky, he’s just “trying to satisfy the hockey people.”