All NHL preseason games wiped out

WITHOUT ANY formal bargaining sessions in the nearly 2 weeks since the NHL locked out its players on Sept. 15, the league on Thursday announced the cancellation of all remaining preseason games.

No hockey will be played until Oct. 11 at the earliest.

Previously, the league cancelled all preseason games up until the beginning of October. Now, all games have been axed, including the following Flyers games:

Mon. Oct. 1: vs. New Jersey

Tues. Oct. 2: at Toronto

Fri. Oct. 5: at New Jersey

Sat. Oct. 6: at Chicago

The Flyers are still tentatively scheduled to open their season Oct. 11 in a nationally televised game against the Bruins. But there doesn't seem to be much chance of that happening.

The league is expected to formally begin canceling regular-season games next week.

The Phantoms - including young NHLers Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier, Zac Rinaldo, Erik Gustafsson, Brandon Manning and Harry Zolnierczyk - open training camp on Saturday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, N.J., under new head coach Terry Murray. They will be in town for a little more than a week before shipping up to Glens Falls, N.Y., to continue camp.

The NHL and NHL Players' Association are scheduled to begin 3 days of bargaining talks Friday in New York, though they are not slated to touch on the only topic that has stalled talks so far: how to split the league's growing $3.3 billion revenue. Instead, the two sides will discuss non-core issues, such as player health and safety and concussion issues.