from Michael Grange of Sportsnet,

There has to be more than this? Doesn't there?

The NHL is days away from cancelling regular season games, having locked out their players when the previous CBA expired on September 15.

Training camps and the exhibition season are already gone. Opening night, scheduled for Oct. 11 could be shut down as soon as the middle of next week and there's a good chance a month's worth of games could be slashed with it.

As NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly put it:

"The calendar continues to tick along … as time goes on regular season games are at risk. I don't think things can be any more urgent than where they are now. We've had that level of urgency for a long time."

We'll have to take his word for it.

On Wednesday or perhaps Thursday of next week the phony war that has been the league's labour stoppage to this point - sorry, cancelling pre-season games is just administrative fiddling and plus players are happy to miss training camp - will become very real.

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