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There will be no 84-game regular season when the NHL drops the puck for 2008-09.
The league's board of governors has rejected the idea of expanding the season by two games a team because of complications and timing, according to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly.
"It's accurate that we are no longer considering an 84-game schedule for the 2008-09 season, but that it remains a possibility for the 2009-10 season," Daly said in an e-mail yesterday.
"I think it was a combination of it becoming too late in the scheduling process for next season to effectuate a change, as well as the fact that we weren't agreeable with the union's condition that it be changed on a one-year, trial basis only."
The NHL Players' Association is not willing to commit to an 84-game season on a permanent basis unless teams are guaranteed home-and-home games with every team in the league. The NHL has yet to agree to that.
The 84-game concept was first suggested by the Detroit Red Wings and endorsed by the NHLPA and executive director Paul Kelly.
The extra games would increase hockey-related revenue, which the players share in through their collective agreement with the league, while simplifying the schedule and making it more fan-friendly.
In the proposal, every team would play six games against its division opponents (24), three games against every other conference team (30) and home and home against every team in the other conference (30). That means Canadian teams such as the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks wouldn't have to wait three years to play host to Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The NHLPA backed the 84-game concept providing the preseason was limited to just six games per team, with a player competing in no more than five of those games.
The current format allows NHL teams to play as many as nine preseason games during a 20-day training camp. Shortening the preseason would accommodate the added regular-season games.
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