Outlook grim as NHL cancels preseason

NEW YORK — The NHL canceled the rest of the preseason Thursday, just a day before negotiations were set to resume in an effort to end the lockout.

The league announced its second cancellation of preseason games in a two-sentence statement. NHL owners locked out players Sept. 16 when the collective bargaining agreement expired.

The NHL had already called off all the exhibition games scheduled in September. The regular season is supposed to begin Oct. 11.

The two sides have scheduled talks on Friday in New York, although they are on secondary economic issues as opposed to the core of the dispute, which is how to split more than $3 billion in annual revenue.

"I'll reserve judgment on my sense of 'optimism' (or not) until we see how our meetings unfold," NHL deputy dommissioner Bill Daly said in an email. "Ultimately, we have to meet and talk to make a deal. But until we make progress and see some compromise from the union of their economic position, we won't be going anywhere fast.

"We will see."

The NHL and the union last met for formal negotiations Sept. 12, three days before the labor pact that ended the previous lockout — back in 2005 — ran out.

CHATEAUGUAY QUEBEC — Montreal players Brian Gionta, Andre Markov and Josh Gorges, and Los Angeles' Simon Gagne and Jonathan Bernier were among 20 NHL players who took part in the first game of the Tournee des joueurs Thursday night at the Complex Multisports de Chateauguay.

Maxime Talbot and Jason Pominville each scored twice to lead the red "Montreal" squad to a 7-4 victory over the white "Quebec" team. First-come, first-served tickets sold at the door for $20 drew a standing-room-only crowd of 1,250 to the multi-rink arena.

Talbot and Bruno Gervais, both of the Philadelphia Flyers, organized the tour, which will feature games next week in Saint-Hyacinthe and Sherbrooke.

Chicago goalie Corey Crawford, from Chateauguay, got the win behind a lineup that also included Gionta, Markov, Gorges, Gervais, Alexandre Burrows, Guillaume Latendresse, Colby Armstrong, Mathieu Darche, Derick Brassard and Steve Begin.

Gagne and Bernier and fellow Quebec City players Patrice Bergeron, Steve Bernier and David Desharnais were among the members of the losing squad, along with Lars Eller, Travis Moen, Brandon Prust, Francis Bouillon, Roman Hamrlik, Benoit Pouliot and Mathieu Perreault.

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