NHL Cancels Remaining October Games With No New Talks Scheduled

The NHL has announced that they have cancelled the remaining regular season games for October after the negotiations between the league and players hit a snag on Thursday.   The result is another 53 games lost due to the third lockout in the past 18 seasons and in total, the league has now cancelled 135 games so far this year, roughly 11% of the regular season.

The league offered a new proposal last Tuesday and was met with three different counter offer’s from the player’s union on Thursday.  The owners shot down all three proposals in a matter of ten minutes, clearly marking their stance going forward that the players will need to come to them.

Because the league only cancelled games up until November 1, there is still hope, albeit a small sliver, that the two sides can come to terms on a new CBA and have play resume by the league’s proposed date of November 2.  This date would allow the league to perform a full 82-game schedule with the playoffs being extended into late June.

But it is a small sliver indeed given the two sides have no further plans to meet anytime soon to discuss the recent proposals, bringing the beginning of November into serious doubt as a realistic start time.