According to the New York Daily News, the NHL and NHL Players Association have scheduled bargaining talks throughout this upcoming weekend. Both sides originally agreed to meet on Friday afternoon, but had yet to schedule any future meetings. As it was reported earlier, the meetings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will cover non-core economics, which includes player safety, scheduling, and travel.

The hopeful plan is for NHL and NHLPA to hash out and finalize other parts of the collective bargaining agreement, which will hopefully pave the way to an agreement on the core-economics. Friday afternoon will mark the first official meeting between the two sides since September 12, 2012.

In addition, the National Hockey League announced that the remainder of this year's preseason schedule has been cancelled through October 8th, 2012. The New York Rangers were slated to play against the New York Islanders, Colorado Avalanche, and the Los Angeles Kings prior to their season opener on October 12th. The NHL is also planning to cross off regular season games starting as early as next week.

Friday can't come soon enough.