As Darren Dreger reported earlier today as the NHL’s unofficial leak man, the NHL schedule up to December 14th has been cancelled, as well as the NHL’s All Star weekend festivities.
The reaction so far among fans has been somewhere between “oh this again?” and “they should cancel the All-Star Game every year”.
What this actually means as far as a CBA agreement is approximately nothing. When the NHLPA and NHL last got together a couple days ago, they were negotiating for a December 15th start to a 64 game season, so that is still quite clearly on the table.
However they wanted a November 1st start, then a November 15th start, then a December 1st start, so that doesn’t mean we’ll have NHL hockey on December 15th. The two sides are closer to an agreement than they would let on though, many reports estimating that they’re about $1.2M or less per team per year apart, which is pocket change at this level.
Remember what’s being cancelled in these announcement is the NHL schedule, not the games.
Official Press Release:
NEW YORK – The National Hockey League announced today the cancellation of the 2012-13 regular-season schedule through December 14. The NHL also announced the cancellation of the 2013 NHL All-Star Weekend scheduled for Jan. 26-27 in Columbus, Ohio. The cancellations are necessary due to the absence of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL Players’ Association and the NHL.
A total of 422 regular-season games — 34.3 percent of the season — were scheduled for Oct. 11 through Dec. 14.
“The reality of losing more regular-season games as well as the 2013 NHL All-Star Weekend in Columbus is extremely disappointing,” said 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.”
