Thursday, 20 December 2012 16:07

Written by Dave Molinari

The NHL has canceled games through Jan. 14 because of its ongoing labor dispute.

That pushes the total of games called off because of the lockout that has shut down the league since Sept. 16 to 625, which is 50.8 percent of the total in the original schedule.

Commissioner Gary Bettman has said that the league will not play a regular season featuring fewer than 48 games per team. That likely requires that play begin around mid-January, if not sooner, so that the playoffs would not spill too far into July.