NHL, players' association don't speak to each other on quiet Sunday

An empty Buffalo Sabres locker room is shown at the First Niagara Center, home of the Buffalo Sabres NHL hockey team, in Buffalo, N.Y., Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/David Duprey)

NEW YORK, N.Y. - All is quiet between the NHL and the players' association, and there is no sign the sides will talk even by phone before Christmas.

"Nothing today," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email Sunday night. "Don't know whether we will speak before the holiday."

Daly and players' association special counsel Steve Fehr spoke to each other Saturday, but nothing of note came out of those discussions. The union declined to comment Sunday, the 99th day of the NHL lockout.

The sides haven't met face to face since Dec. 13.

All games through Jan. 14 have already been called off, and if a new collective bargaining agreement isn't reached by then, the remainder of the schedule could be cancelled, too. So far, 625 games—more than 50 per cent of the schedule—have been wiped out, along with the Winter Classic and the All-Star game.