Bettman
A smirk that could piss off any hockey fan.

As the September 15 deadline lingers, the NHL put out the 2012-13 national television schedule. As Travis Hughes of Broad Street Hockey points out, the Flyers have 25 games on the U.S. schedule.

Because I'm fairly confident the NHL won't begin until mid-December or so (the NHL won't put the Winter Classic in jeopardy), I'm putting the over/under at 15.

Yeah, the NHL needs to conduct business as usual, but is anyone really trying to hear this right now? Especially considering that the chances that a good number of these games won't be played, it's just another thing to infuriate hockey fans… it's working.

Adam Proteau of The Hockey News put it better than I could:

 

Danny Briere doesn't seem really confident in a new CBA either. CSN Philly's Tim Panaccio fired this series of tweets earlier while at the Flyers Skate Zone:

 

Six players, zero optimism… exactly what every hockey fan wants to hear. The NHL and the Players Association won't meet today after the league tweaked their proposal, but could get together tomorrow.

When I say "tweaked", what I really mean is the league took an intially shitty proposal, and made it a little less shitty. Changing a few words, throwing a few mill back at the players, and trying to set a $58 million cap (down from over $70 million) isn't going to fly. 

Countdown continues: 16 days.

You can follow Ryan Gillon on Twitter @SeriouslyRyan.