It’s official, the lockout has cost the NHL and its players the first chunk of regular season games.
The NHL announced it’s canceling the first two weeks worth of the schedule from October 11-24 thanks to the lockout. In all, that makes 82 games to be canceled by the league. The wording of the NHL release leaves open the possibility the games could be rescheduled should a new CBA be worked out.
This marks the first time since the 2004-05 labor dispute that the league has canceled games. As you probably remember, the entire season was wiped out then.
While the league is doing that, Chris Johnston of The Canadian Press reports the two sides haven’t scheduled a date to meet again and it doesn’t appear likely they’ll get together until next week.