Eight years after becoming the first sports league to have an entire season wiped out by a labour dispute, the NHL is missing meaningful games again.
The first two weeks of the 2012-13 season were officially cancelled on Thursday - the victim of the league's third lockout in 18 years. In all, 82 games were struck from the calendar through Oct. 24, starting with four on what had been a scheduled opening night of Oct. 11.
Further cancellations are a strong possibility before a new agreement is signed.
Despite negotiating regularly throughout the summer, the NHL and NHL Players' Association have been unable to make any progress in collective bargaining talks. The lockout is 19 days old and the sides currently don't have any negotiating sessions scheduled.
Donald Fehr, the NHLPA's executive director, labelled the lockout and subsequent cancellation of games a "unilateral choice" by 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," Fehr said. "A lockout should be the last resort in bargaining, not the strategy of first resort."
