Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly

Federal mediators are entering the stalled NHL labor talks, with the season's first 2 1/2 months already lost because of the lockout.

NEW YORK -- If the first bargaining session in eight days between the NHL and the players' association made any headway, neither side tipped its hand.

So much for a two-week break. Just over a week since the last set of failed negotiations, the NHL and the locked-out players' association will return to the bargaining table Monday.

Negotiations had already hit a wall in the ongoing hockey labor fight, and now the NHL has suggested the sides take an official two-week break before getting back to the bargaining table.

A secret, long-awaited bargaining session has done some good in the NHL labor fight -- so much so that the sides already have plans to get back to the bargaining table soon.