NEW YORK (AP) -- The NHL canceled next week's meeting with its board of governors on Thursday because the league has nothing new to report in the stagnant collective bargaining process.
The board of governors, representing the 30 clubs, hadn't met since September when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman imposed the lockout that reached its 113th day on Thursday and has already forced the cancellation of 571 regular-season games and the 2005 All-Star game.
There was speculation that Bettman might emerge from next Friday's meeting either with an announcement that this season had been called off, or with a drop date for saving the hockey year.
No North American sports league has lost an entire season to a labor dispute, but the NHL is moving dangerously close to becoming the first.
When the meeting was scheduled on Dec. 22, the NHL declined to reveal an agenda -- other than to say it would be used to update the board of governors on the status of collective bargaining.
Nothing has changed in the two weeks since the get-together was put in the books, so the timing of the cancellation is somewhat curious.
``People have to come from a far distance, so I'm sure the reason it was called off was there was no reason to have a meeting,'' said Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello, who represents New Jersey on the board of governors. ``Our commissioner never has a meeting just for the sake of having a meeting.
``Nothing has changed, but I don't why other than there was no reason to have it.''
If the idea was to pressure the players' association to come up with a new offer in a last-ditch effort to save the season, it didn't seem to work.
``The canceling of the board of governors meeting is a league matter and not something the NHLPA will comment on,'' NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin said in a statement.
Owners and players haven't sat down at the negotiating table since last month when the sides met twice within six days.
The players' association got talks restarted after three months of silence with a proposal centered around an immediate 24 percent salary rollback on all existing contracts. Owners rejected that plan and countered with a salary-cap structured offer.
The NHLPA quickly turned that down and remained adamant that it would never accept a salary cap. The union's offer featured a luxury-tax and revenue-sharing system.
Bettman said he has no interest in any kind of luxury tax proposed by the players.
Neither side appears ready to alter its previous offers and resume talking.
During the last lockout that disrupted the 1994-95 season, an agreement was reached on Jan. 11, 1995, allowing for a 48-game season that began nine days later.
If the season is wiped out, it would mark the first time in 86 years that the Stanley Cup wasn't awarded. A flu epidemic in 1919 canceled the final series between Montreal and Seattle.
The board of governors, representing the 30 clubs, hadn't met since September when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman imposed the lockout that reached its 113th day on Thursday and has already forced the cancellation of 571 regular-season games and the 2005 All-Star game.
There was speculation that Bettman might emerge from next Friday's meeting either with an announcement that this season had been called off, or with a drop date for saving the hockey year.
No North American sports league has lost an entire season to a labor dispute, but the NHL is moving dangerously close to becoming the first.
When the meeting was scheduled on Dec. 22, the NHL declined to reveal an agenda -- other than to say it would be used to update the board of governors on the status of collective bargaining.
Nothing has changed in the two weeks since the get-together was put in the books, so the timing of the cancellation is somewhat curious.
``People have to come from a far distance, so I'm sure the reason it was called off was there was no reason to have a meeting,'' said Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello, who represents New Jersey on the board of governors. ``Our commissioner never has a meeting just for the sake of having a meeting.
``Nothing has changed, but I don't why other than there was no reason to have it.''
If the idea was to pressure the players' association to come up with a new offer in a last-ditch effort to save the season, it didn't seem to work.
``The canceling of the board of governors meeting is a league matter and not something the NHLPA will comment on,'' NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin said in a statement.
Owners and players haven't sat down at the negotiating table since last month when the sides met twice within six days.
The players' association got talks restarted after three months of silence with a proposal centered around an immediate 24 percent salary rollback on all existing contracts. Owners rejected that plan and countered with a salary-cap structured offer.
The NHLPA quickly turned that down and remained adamant that it would never accept a salary cap. The union's offer featured a luxury-tax and revenue-sharing system.
Bettman said he has no interest in any kind of luxury tax proposed by the players.
Neither side appears ready to alter its previous offers and resume talking.
During the last lockout that disrupted the 1994-95 season, an agreement was reached on Jan. 11, 1995, allowing for a 48-game season that began nine days later.
If the season is wiped out, it would mark the first time in 86 years that the Stanley Cup wasn't awarded. A flu epidemic in 1919 canceled the final series between Montreal and Seattle.
