A week after the entire preseason was flushed down the toilet, the NHL announced Thursday that they would cancel the beginning of the regular season (through October 24th) due to the ongoing lockout.
TSN’s Bob McKenzie first broke the news via Twitter…
NHL announces cancellation of 82 regular-season games, all those from Oct. 11 to Oct. 24 inclusive.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) October 4, 2012
NHLPA executive director Don Fehr has released a statement about the NHL’s decision to cancel 82 regular-season games via the NHLPA’s Facebook page:
The decision to cancel the first two weeks of the NHL season is the unilateral choice of the NHL owners. If the owners truly cared about the game and the fans, they would lift the lockout and allow the season to begin on time while negotiations continue. A lockout should be the last resort in bargaining, not the strategy of first resort. For nearly 20 years, the owners have elected to lock-out the players in an effort to secure massive concessions. Nevertheless, the players remain committed to playing hockey while the parties work to reach a deal that is fair for both sides. We hope we will soon have a willing negotiating partner.
After both the league and player’s association met in the beginning of the week with no progress being made the cancellation of regular season games seemed inevitable.
There are also no future talks planned at this time.
Now the cancellation of the beginning of the season doesn’t mean that the entire 2012-13 campaign will be lost. This is despite many NHL players heading overseas to play during the duration of the lockout.
However the longer the lockout persist one has to wonder what the NHL will look like when it makes it’s return. According to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, the league has lost in upwards of $100 million dollars. You’d have to figure the number is at least double that with the loss of the first two weeks of the season.
How do smaller market teams like Florida, Nashville and Carolina recover from something like this when lucrative television deals and fan support are scarce at times? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
