NHL issue statement

Yesterday's expiration date of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL owners and players passed with no resolution, so the league's players are now officially locked out. The NHL released the following statement today:

Despite the expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the National Hockey League has been, and remains, committed to negotiating around the clock to reach a new CBA that is fair to the Players and to the 30 NHL teams.
Thanks to the conditions fostered by 7 seasons under the previous CBA, competitive balance has created arguably the most meaningful regular season in pro sports; a different team has won the Stanley Cup every year; fans and sponsors have agreed the game is at its best, and the League has generated remarkable growth and momentum. While our last CBA negotiation resulted in a seismic change in the League's economic system, and produced corresponding on-ice benefits, our current negotiation is focused on a fairer and more sustainable division of revenues with the Players, as well as other necessary adjustments consistent with the objectives of the economic system we developed jointly with the NHL Players' Association 7 years ago. Those adjustments are attainable through sensible, focused negotiation, not through rhetoric.
This is a time of year for all attention to be focused on the ice, not on a meeting room. The League, the Clubs and the Players all have a stake in resolving our bargaining issues appropriately and getting the puck dropped as soon as possible. We owe it to each other, to the game and, most of all, to the fans.

This is the second NHL lockout in the last 7 years and the third since 1994.