NHL Cancels Remaining October Games

The NHL canceled another week of games today as the dispute between the league and the player’s union continues.

League officials announced today that they would be cancelling all of the games through November 1. According to ABC, the league has cancelled 135 games so far, or about 11% of the season.

There is still some hope that the NHL could play a full 82-game season. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said earlier this week that if the NHL started playing regular season games then the league could play a full season. Of course, that was before the NHL Player’s Association turned down the league’s 50/50 hockey revenue offer. ABC notes that the NHLPA gave the league three counter proposals but all of those offers were quickly turned down.

Bettman said on Thursday:

“None of the three variations of player share that they gave us even began to approach 50-50, either at all or for some long period of time … It’s clear we’re not speaking the same language.”

Union executive director Donald Fehr said that two of the proposals would have given the players a fixed amount of revenue. According to Fehr, that would have eventually equaled a 50/50 cut if league revenues continued to grow.

At the moment, there are no new talks scheduled. Bettman said that a deal has to be reached by this Thursday in order to get the NHL season started by November 2. If an agreement isn’t reached by Thursday the league is expected to cut more games.

Do you think a deal will be made by next Thursday?