Free Republic

NEW YORK -- The NHL season is dead -- again. After 6½ hours of negotiations, with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux at the bargaining table, talks broke down Saturday, leaving the already canceled hockey season beyond saving. "It's certainly not going to be resurrected after today," players' association senior director Ted Saskin said. "It's 100 percent certain coming out of today's meeting that nothing could impact the cancellation of the season." Just three days after the season was called off because of the protracted lockout, the NHL and the union restarted talks at an undisclosed location in New York. Commissioner...

They all should be ashamed of themselves. The owners. The players. Everybody. The deal was there to be done and both sides refused to go the extra mile to make it happen. "We have failed," was how Calgary Flames president and chief executive officer Ken King summed it up. As he cancelled the season Wednesday, National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman described it as a "Sad and regrettable day." You got that right....

Gary Bettman makes it official: 2004-05 NHL season has been cancelled. Damn you.

Source: NHL plans to cancel season 2/14/2005, 1:25 p.m. ET By IRA PODELL The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — With no miracle save in sight and a weekend deadline long gone, the NHL made plans for a news conference Tuesday to cancel what little remained of a season already decimated by a lockout. A public relations executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that planning was under way Monday for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to make the announcement at a news conference in New York. The Canadian Press, citing an unidentified source, said Bettman will cancel...