Four Wild Exhibition Games Cancelled But Is There A Positive?

The first casualty came out of the current NHL lockout when the league announced they have cancelled all the scheduled exhibition games for the month of September.  In total, 61 planned games across North America have been written off which include 4 games involving the Minnesota Wild.

Those slated games include Sept. 25 at Boise (Dallas Stars); Sept. 26 at home against Dallas; Sept. 27 at home against St. Louis and Sept. 29 at St. Louis (courtesy of the Star Tribune).

If and it’s a big if the dispute should get settled in the near future, there are still three games on tap for the Wild, although another game or two could be snuck in somewhere to help filter out the roster.

The crunch will be felt from the lost revenue at the local levels but also at the head office levels as well.  The NHL announced Wednesday that all employees in the league office will see their salaries cut by 20 per cent when they transition to a four day work week starting October 1.  You may recall that the last lockout, only a mere eight years ago, the league laid off roughly 50 per cent of their staff just a few days into the work stoppage which ended up lasting all season long.

Maybe this could be taken as a positive in that the league doesn’t anticipate this stoppage to be as long or as painful as the one back in 2004.  Or is it just wishful thinking?  Let me know your thoughts and whether you could view this small as a positive.