NHL Letter

This was sent to me this morning from the NHL: Dear Matthew, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will hold a news conference in New York Wed., February 16, at 1 p.m. ET. NHL.com and NHLCBANews.com will stream the press conference live. UPDATE (11:45 AM): The Associated Press is reporting that the deadline came and went with no news one way or the other. Shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday, the NHL said nothing happened at the deadline -- but gave no immediate indication of whether the season was on or off. NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly told the Associated Press in an e-mail Wednesday morning that there was no contact or discussions between the sides since they exchanged letters the night before. Meanwhile, TSN.ca is reporting that Bettman will indeed cancel the season this afternoon. The National Hockey League's deadline for the NHL Players' Association to accept its $42.5 million hard cap proposal has passed, with all signs pointing to commissioner Gary Bettman announcing the cancellation of the 2004-2005 season at a 1pm et/10am pt news conference in New York (live on TSN and TSN.ca). The league has already sent out memos to its teams saying that it has not contacted the union since Tuesday night, and the season will be cancelled.