All Hockey Games Axed through December 30 in Fresh Cancellations -NHL Lockout Update
The cancellations keep coming on as the National Hockey League (NHL) announced axing more than a 100 more games that were scheduled from December 14 to the 30th in sight of failed talks between the league and Players’ Association.
Fresh cancellations have now boosted up the total to nearly half of the 2012-2013 regular season already gone as a total of 526 games have been lost to due to the failure of both stakeholders on reaching a consensus on a new collective bargaining agreement.
It has now been nearly three months since the lockout officially came into effect and much longer than that if the month of June is taken into accounts, when the labour talks really did kick off. December was the month which had raised the hopes of people
associated with hockey in some way or another, as players and team owners finally sat down with each other without any mediators, but failed to keep the train steady in the next days to follow up and get a deal done.
"I would say it was expected," New York Rangers goalie Martin Biron, the team's union representative, said about the lost games Monday in an email to the AP. "We continue to stand behind Don 100 percent and the work our negotiating committee is doing and
working hard to get a deal done."
Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the NHL, also expressed his weakened stance over the whole thing and how he had also lost hope with their last resort of options failing to make the needed difference. It is unclear at this point on what both sides have decided
to do in order to keep the talks going, but a meeting between them is expected for the first time since last Thursday, on Wednesday.
Both sides are yet to gain on some very important issues which have hindered progress in talks, including core economic issues and players’ share in team revenue. Contractual issues are also a major factor in a deal not getting close to being done, but neither
side has been able to put forth a proposal which would attract the other.
Updates should be expected in the next couple of days on the lockout situation.
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