NHL cancels all games through Jan. 14

Associated Press ^ | Dec. 20, 2012 5:06 PM EST | Ira Podell

[Olog-hai]

The NHL could be one step away from canceling another hockey season because of a labor fight with the players.

In the latest round of cancellations, the NHL on Thursday wiped out all games through Jan. 14. More than 50 percent of the schedule has been lost, and the rest is now in great danger, too.

“I don’t want to characterize what today’s cancellations mean or don't mean,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email. “I will stand on the announcement that was made.”

So far, 625 regular-season games have been called off, including nearly 100 in the announcement made Thursday—the 96^th day of the NHL’s lockout. The New Year's Day Winter Classic and the All-Star game also have been lost.

The NHL had previously canceled games through Dec. 30. …

[Jonty30]

The athletes and owners are going to kill their sport. This is the fourth strike in about 20 years.

[Happy Rain]

As a Southerner I never developed a taste for hockey though I have know people (Yankees and Canadians) who are fanatics for the sport...and there's the problem.

The NHL is not so popular as to cause widespread economic hardships and fan disgust when shut down like the NBA, MLB and NFL would.

I feel for the constantly screwed hockey fans.

[rfp1234]

Time for the Stanley Cup trustees to screw the NHL and award the Cup
to the AHL champion (or have a mini-playoff with other league champions).

[kearnyirish2]

I used to go to NHL games when tickets were much cheaper; we had a new team near us (NJ Devils) and it was a lot of fun. That being said, it is a sport that is difficult to watch on TV; the puck is simply too small to follow (to the point where they tried having some “aura” around it on TV to make it easier to follow). They would black out games in our area because they didn’t sell enough tickets (not exactly a way to attract fans); they still had a problem selling tickets after winning a few Stanley Cups (after which they would parade around their arena parking lot).

As a live sport it has no match; it just has no broad appeal. Too much of the country never even sees ice in the winter, and they moved the Devils to Newark (not exactly a hotbed of hockey fans).

[Hot Tabasco]

and award the Cup to the AHL champion

I say fill the bowl with potpourri and set it in a bathroom somewhere.......

[Happy Rain]

I was a hockey fanatic one time...

...but then ALL of America (except the evil Left of course) were hockey freaks when Team USA stomped the Soviets in 1980...if the NHL could somehow reproduce that kind of interest in the game...perhaps the league should recruit pro wresting promoters.

[Varda]

Donald Fehr is on his way to ruining another sport for me. I used to be a MLB fanatic, now my old team is a farm system for big markets. I’ve spent thousands of dollars watching hockey. It’s fabulous live but if Fehr and the players get their way, I’ll never watch again. Here’s hoping the owners cancel the season and break the union.

[BluH2o]

Colorado has the Avalanche. Very little about the NHL strike in the news. Colorado also has college hockey which is very popular, Denver University (DU) and Colorado College (Colo. Springs) both produce consistently high quality hockey teams. Their rivalry goes back many decades and any time they match up during the season the games are always a sell out. The Avalanche, the original Quebec Nordiques, brought a Stanley Cup to Denver early on but have struggled since ... interest in the team lags, eclipsed by Broncos football and Rockies baseball. The NHL strike will only damage their cause further.

[Toirdhealbheach Beucail]

I enjoy watching hockey, but keeping this up will kill the NHL. We have an AHL affiliate here that is just as entertaining, far cheaper, and they play regularly.

Unfortunately for the NHL - and all major league sports - the continued economic uncertainty is going to make the more and more of a luxury than a necessity. One would hope they would begin to grasp this...

[dfwgator]

I predict the end result will be the Kontinental Hockey League - North American Division.

[alphadoggie]

Ditto. Donald Fehr is trying to ruin hockey as well.

[stevio]

Really? I would have never known.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“The NHL is not so popular as to cause widespread economic hardships and fan disgust when shut down like the NBA, MLB and NFL would.”

Tell that to the 17,000 fans that will not be at MSG tonight watching a Ranger game, drinking 9 dollar beers, eating 8 dollar hot dogs and purchasing 200 dollar jerseys.

Or tell that to the owners and vendors who will not make a dime with a dark building.

I am a die hard. Been for 40 years. This year I quit coaching hockey and now go to Dallas every weekend to watch my kid play. Best hockey in the world, beer is 2.50 a bottle and the snack bar food is tolerable.

[Happy Rain]

Here in South Carolina, and in many other non arctic states, if there is no football, basketball or baseball the world comes to an end...Hockey? what’s that? Something those guys in South Park who when they talk the top half of their heads fly up in the air give a damn about?

Ain’t got a dog in your fight brother—frozen mud puddles in my world is a freak winter accident.

[Gay State Conservative]

I have limitless disdain for today’s professional athletes.If I knew more about the owners of pro sport teams I’d probably have disdain for them as well.Most of this nation’s skilled,experienced brain surgeons,heart surgeons and cancer specialists don’t make $250K a year.And that’s in spite of the fact that they study and train for 10...15..or even 20 years to gain their skills as well as the fact that most spend several hundred thousand dollars to get their degree.And yet the lowliest bench warmer in MLB,the NFL,the NBA and the NHL make close to a million a year and most make far,*far* more than that.

[kearnyirish2]

I saw the Soviet Central Red Army beat the NJ Devils like 6-1 in the early 1980s (many of those Soviet players ended up in the NHL); when the Devils scored their one goal the place erupted as though they won the Stanley Cup.

I wasn’t yet 10 when the US beat the USSR in Lake Placid, but I remember it (my parents’ reaction to it).

[Alberta's Child]

Actually, very few Americans were hockey fans back in 1980. The U.S. Olympic team got almost no public attention at all until after they had beaten Czechoslovakia in the second game of the preliminary round and it was clear to a lot of people that the U.S. team was much better than anyone had expected.

The USA-USSR game in the medal round wasn't even broadcast live. Anyone who watched it on TV saw a tape-delay broadcast after the game was already over.

Even the game announcers recognized how few Americans were hockey fans. I think it was Al Michaels who suggested that most of the spectators didn't know the difference between a blue line and a clothesline. LOL.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

Maybe the NHL should just dissolve.