NHL’S first three weeks now on ice

HOCKEY FANS will know in less than a week whether they’re going to witness a shortened NHL season, if there is an NHL season at all.

On Friday, the NHL announced that for the moment, all games through Nov. 1, which encompasses 135 contests starting from Oct. 11, will not be played. But if the league and the players union do not finalize a new collective bargaining agreement by the end of the day next Thursday, at least some of those games will be canceled permanently.

Friday’s announcement was a reaction to the lack of progress made during Thursday’s negoti- ations in Toronto, when the NHL rejected all three proposals offered by the union in a matter of 10 minutes and walked out of the meeting after an hour.

The two parties did not meet on Friday and had no more sessions scheduled.

On Tuesday, the league had made a proposal offering a 50-50 split of revenue between owners and players and seeking a Nov. 2 start date to the regular season. The NHL said in order for the season to begin on Nov. 2, the parties had to “conclude a new written CBA” by next Thursday to allow for a weeklong training camp to precede the season.

Delay past that date, the league said, would “necessarily leave us with an abbreviated season and (would) require the cancellation of signature NHL events.”

That would mean the cancellation of the NHL’s marquee money-maker — the Jan. 1 Winter Classic — and the Jan. 27 AllStar Game in Columbus.

On Thursday, executive director Don Fehr and the players’ association insisted that in their most recent proposals, they had promised the league a transition from the current 57-43 revenue split toward 50-50 if, in exchange, the owners would honor current player contracts. But commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHL said that of the players’ three proposals, “none began to approach” a 50-50 split.