NHL cancels all games through Jan. 14

No drop-dead date has been announced, but it is clear the sides are running out of time to reach a deal. The NHL said Thursday that all games through Jan. 14 have been canceled. More than 50 percent of the schedule has been lost, and the rest is now in danger, too.

"I don't want to characterize what today's cancellations mean or don't mean," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email Thursday. "I will stand on the announcement that was made."

The players' association didn't have any comment about the latest cancellations.

So far, 625 regular-season games have been called off, including nearly 100 in the announcement made Thursday — the 96th day of the NHL's lockout. The New Year's Day Winter Classic and the All-Star game also have been lost.

The NHL had previously canceled games through Dec. 30.

Daly said in a radio interview Wednesday that mid-January is likely the latest the sides could go to make a deal to save some of the season. When pressed, however, he said he expects the season will be played.

The NHL is already the only North American professional sports league to cancel a season because of a labor dispute, losing the 2004-05 campaign to a lockout.

Daly said the sides weren't in contact Thursday. The groups have remained apart since two days of meetings with a federal mediator last week produced no progress. There haven't been negotiations since Dec. 6 in New York, when talks broke down after a few days of bargaining.