NHL: No new lockout talks scheduled

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NEW YORK, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- No new talks aimed at ending the 93-day-old NHL lockout are planned as players vote on whether to decertify their union, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly says.

Daly told the (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger in an email Monday the league and the NHL Players Association currently have no plans to continue collective bargaining talks as hopes to avoid a complete cancellation of the season dim.

"Hopefully something will happen that will cause a change in position," Daly said. "The (NHLPA) knows where we are and what is needed to get the season under way."

All games through Dec. 30 have been canceled, and Commissioner Gary Bettman has said any shortened season must include at least 48 games. That means an agreement likely would have to be reached by early January.

"Time is obviously getting short," Daly said.

He made the comments as the NHLPA's more than 700 members were voting on whether to decertify the group as a union, which would open the door to possible legal action against the league's lockout move on antitrust grounds.

The NHL took preemptive action against the possibility Friday when it petitioned the federal courts for a legal opinion that the lockout was a lawful action.