The National Hockey League took another step towards the inevitable, announcing on Thursday the cancellation of its regular-season schedule through January 14.
The latest announcement came six days after the league revealed it had filed a class action complaint in federal court on Friday, just hours after the NHL got wind that its Players' Association would ask its executive board to proceed with a vote to file a disclaimer of interest. That is a precursor to decertify the union in order to proceed with class action and antitrust lawsuits.
No further talks between factions have occurred since a second go-around with federal mediators failed last week. No further progress on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement has been made since both sides met in a round of intense talks in New York two weeks ago.
That brings the total number of contests lost to the lockout that started September 16 to 625 -- more than one half of all games originally planned -- which included the 2013 Winter Classic and All-Star Weekend.
A take-it-or-leave-it negotiating stance by the owners at every step has left only two final options: either reach a deal by the end of the first week of January and play a truncated slate, or proceed with the cancellation of the entire 2012-13 season.
According to multiple sources, there have only been two conversations in the last week.Sportsnet's Chris Johnston revealed that the NHLPA has until January 7 to respond to the league's class-action suit, so there's your unofficial "drop dead" date.
The open vote on the disclaimer of interest is set to close on Friday.
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