NHL cancels first two weeks of 2012-13 regular season

With its players locked out, the National Hockey League had done the expected and scrapped the early games in the upcoming season. The regular season schedule was supposed to begin with four games—including the Canucks at Calgary—one week from today (October 4). However, the league has now announced that 82 games between October 11 and 24 will not proceed as originally planned. All of the preseason games had already been shelved.

Today's announcement means the first seven games on the Canucks' schedule have now been cancelled including home games set for October 13 versus Edmonton and October 15 against Carolina. Also, among the games the Canucks was supposed to play in that span was their only meeting of the year with Sidney Crosby and the Penguins on October 23 in Pittsburgh.

This announcement from the league also ensures the players will miss their first paycheques of the new season which were supposed to be delivered on October 15. There are no new talks scheduled between the two sides to end the three-week work stoppage.