NHL cancels games through Dec. 14, All-Star weekend
The NHL lockout forced the cancellation of more regular-season games and the All-Star Game, the league said Friday in announcing its latest round of schedule cuts.
Regular-season games through Dec. 14 were wiped out and the All-Star Game on Jan. 27 in Columbus also will not be played.
The NHL has now lost 422 games, or 34.3 percent, of the regular season. Commissioner Gary Bettman said this week that the league has lost $18 million to $20 million during the lockout.
"The reality of losing more regular-season games as well as the 2013 NHL All-Star Weekend in Columbus is extremely disappointing," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. "We feel badly for NHL fans and particularly those in Columbus, and we intend to work closely with the Blue Jackets organization to return the NHL All-Star events to Columbus and their fans as quickly as possible." There are growing fears that the entire season could be canceled.
The NHL and the Players' Association failed to move closer to a new collective bargaining agreement after the league rejected the union's new proposal on Wednesday. The players' proposal included a concession to tie their revenue share to the league's percentage-based system.
According to The Globe and Mail in Toronto, Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller raised the possibility of decertification in an attempt to break the impasse. that move would give the players the option to file an antitrust suit against the NHL.
"After watching the other sport leagues go through labor disputes last year, it is apparent that until decertification is filed, there will not be any real movement or negotiation," Miller told The Globe and Mail. "They want to see if we will take a bad deal because we get desperate or if we have the strength to push back. Decertification is a push back and should show we want a negotiation and a fair deal on at least some of our terms."
