The <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/topic/subjects/nhl">NHL</a> have cancelled all matches until December 30 as the continuing dispute with players rumbles on. A new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL Players' Association and the NHL has still not been agreed, extending the league lockout yet further. The 2013 All-Star game in January has already been cancelled because of the row. A total of 526 regular-season games, equating to 42.8 per cent of the season, have now been cancelled, after the confirmed matches from between December 15 through December 30 were to be axed. Time is now running out for the league to come to an agreement that would see any matches played this season, after Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, warned last week the league could not hold a season shorter than the 48-game campaign used in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season. The two sides have not met since three days of negotiations last week ended on Thursday without agreement. "Trying to set up something for this week, but nothing finalised yet," Bill Daly, the deputy commissioner, said on the NHL official website. The sides met for nearly 20 hours over Tuesday and Wednesday last week in New York. The dispute, which the NHL has said is costing it between $18-$20 million a day (Dh66.1m to Dh73m), centres around how to divide the league's $3.3 billion in annual revenue. The league wants a 10-year labour deal with an opt-out clause after eight years, while the union has offered an eight-year contract with the ability to opt out after six. The NHL wants to limit them to five years, seven if a club re-signs its own athlete. Follow us
