NHL cancels more games
Labor talks for the NHL have been stalled again, and as a result, more games have been canceled. All regular season games through Nov. 1 will not be played.
In all, 135 games have been canceled, which is more than 10 percent of the season. This doesn’t seem to be the end of the cancellations either. A significant amount of games are going to be canceled in the next week unless a deal is reached.
Although the league proposed a deal on Tuesday, it was just a starting point for the negotiation. Commissioner Gary Bettman thinks that the league still could fit in all 82 games if a deal could be made and play resumed by November 2.
More games are likely to be cut if a deal cannot be reached by next Thursday’s deadline. The Winter Classic is the next big event that will be in danger. The game was supposed to be played between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs at Michigan Stadium.
Even though they will not be playing anytime soon, the players will be getting paid before the end of the month. The NHL and NHLPA have made official last season’s escrow payable to the players, both sides confirmed to ESPN.com. The players will get back 7.98 percent of the 8.5 percent held in escrow from last season.
As of right now there are no negotiation talks scheduled, and the two sides have not been in touch to plan another meeting.
