National Hockey League Cancel Remainder of Preseason

The National Hockey League announced today the cancellation of the remainder of the 2012 preseason schedule.

The League and the NHL Players’ Association failed to reach an agreement for a new collective bargaining agreement. 

The NHL already had called off all the preseason games scheduled in September. The regular season is supposed to begin Oct. 11.

The two sides have scheduled talks on Friday in New York, although they are on secondary economic issues as opposed to the core of the dispute — how to split more than $3 billion in annual revenue.

“I’ll reserve judgment on my sense of ‘optimism’ (or not) until we see how our meetings unfold,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email to The Associated Press. “Ultimately, we have to meet and talk to make a deal. But until we make progress and see some compromise from the Union of their economic position, we won’t be going anywhere fast.

“We will see.”

The NHL and the union last met for formal negotiations Sept. 12, three days before the labor pact that ended the previous lockout — back in 2005 — ran out.