NHL openers in jeopardy as talks break up quickly

• Decision could be made this week on canceling the opening games
• NHL's Bill Daly wouldn't rule out bringing in a mediator but says it isn't the time
• Loss of preseason games cost the league $100 million, Daly says

A delay in the start of the 2012-13 NHL season became all but a certainty Tuesday as talks between the NHL and its players ended after two hours with no reported progress.

With players needing seven to nine days of training camp to start the season, the league is expected to announce this week that the Oct. 11 opening night games and probably others will be canceled. Based on how the league handled preseason cancellations, it might cancel two weeks' worth of games at a time.

No plans were made to continue formal discussions, though NHL Players' Association executive director Donald Fehr hopes to meet with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman informally.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said negotiations ended Tuesday because he said the NHLPA "had nothing really to say."

"They aren't willing to codify current interpretations and they punted the other issues to the main negotiation," Daly said.

NHL officials have expressed frustration because they believe players aren't negotiating. They view the players' proposals as being tweaks of their first proposal. Fehr said NHl officials should "look in the mirror."

"It's clear that the players have made substantial moves toward the owners and the owners have made substantial moves away from the players," he said.

He said the question he is asked by players is what do they get out of the owners' proposal.

"It seems to be what they get is much lower salaries and many fewer contracting rights," Fehr said. "And that seems to be something that makes making an agreement reasonably difficult. We have to find a way to cross that bridge."

Daly said the loss of the preseason schedule has already done "$100 million in damage to the business."

Thus far, players haven't loss anything, but their losses begin when they miss their first check in the middle of October. Based on receiving 13 checks during the season, the players lose 7.7% of their salary with each check missed.

Asked whether the two sides might consider mediation, Daly said he wouldn't "rule out anything," but he added mediation is usually the avenue to take if the two sides are having difficulty understanding each other. Daly said the two sides are communicating but don't agree on what the new CBA should look like.

Fehr said he and Bettman have discussed the possibility of mediation. He said he's not opposed to anything that might work to bring the two sides together.

The stalemated negotiations are primarily hung up over the owners' desire to reduce players' share of hockey-related revenues from the 57% they received last season. In their last proposal, owners offered a six-year deal with players' share reduced first to 49% and then 47% by the end of the deal.

The players' position is that they are willing to reduce their share, but they don't want to take an immediate pay cut. They want to maintain their current salaries, which totaled $1.8 billion last season, while taking less of anticipated revenue growth. They want some of that money to be tied to increased revenue sharing to help financially distressed teams.