Day 2 comes, goes with no progress in NHL lockout

NEW YORK • Day 2 of the NHL lockout saw no changes from either side Monday, as talks between the league and the NHLPA remain unscheduled.

The NHL locked the players out over the weekend, when the collective bargaining agreement expired at 11:59 p.m. Saturday. It's the NHL's fourth work stoppage in the last 20 years.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA special counsel Steve Fehr have spoken informally since the lockout began, and may do so again on Tuesday. But nothing official will resume until at least Wednesday between Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr.

The two sides haven't met for face-to-face talks since last Wednesday.

Over the weekend, the league issued a statement to fans on its website that it was "committed to negotiating around the clock to reach a new CBA that is fair to the players and to the 30 NHL teams."

The clock is ticking and there's no new collective bargaining agreement in sight. The league could start to announce this week the cancellation of preseason games and there's little chance training camps will open on time. The regular season is scheduled to begin Oct. 11, but that obviously is in peril.

"This is a time of year for all attention to be focused on the ice, not on a meeting room," the league said. "The league, the clubs and the players all have a stake in resolving our bargaining issues appropriately and getting the puck dropped as soon as possible. We owe it to each other, to the game and, most of all, to the fans."

Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, Chicago's Jonathan Toews and Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog were among the players participating in a weekend NHLPA video to fans that was posted on YouTube. With black-and-white photos of each player as a backdrop, they talked about how much the game meant to them, and thanked fans for their support.

"We understand the people that suffer the most are the fans," Crosby said.

Well, that might not totally be the case. The Ottawa Senators, after all, have already had layoffs and full-time staff have been placed on a reduced work week, according to president Cyril Leeder.

"Every full-time, every part-time employee is affected by a work stoppage," Leeder said. "On the full-time employees, they've either been laid off temporarily or gone to a four-day work week."

Leeder wouldn't say exactly how many people have been laid off, but that "it was a significant number" and "more than ten." The Senators have 170 full-time employees.

"This really is the area that I worry about the most," Leeder said. "It's not good for anybody when we have a work stoppage and the people most affected are our staff here."

Leeder said the organization is working hard to ensure it's ready to resume operations once the lockout comes to an end.