lockout

Hockey players are sticking together as a union for now and are working long and late hours with the NHL to try to reach a new collective bargaining agreement to get the game back on the ice.

The proposals are flying back and forth between the NHL and the players' association. Whether significant progress is being made in the process still isn't all that clear.

The NHL and the players' association will start the new year right where they ended the old one -- at the bargaining table. Negotiations are expected to resume Tuesday after the league reviews a counterproposal presented by the players on Monday.

Lots of questions, but still no answers in the NHL labor fight. The league and the players' association spent much of Saturday talking to each other via conference call, strictly for the purpose of sharing information regarding the NHL's new contract offer.

The NHL's latest offer to the players' association was enough for the sides to make plans to meet this weekend. The league and players are expected to talk via conference call on Saturday, and have tentative plans to meet Sunday in New York.

All is quiet between the NHL and the players' association, and there is no sign the sides will talk even by phone before Christmas.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and players' association special counsel Steve Fehr spoke on the telephone but still haven't made plans to meet face to face.

The NHL's lawsuit against its players was assigned to a relatively new federal judge who is a longtime New York Yankees fan and a former federal prosecutor.

NHL players will begin voting Sunday on whether they will grant the players' association's executive board the authority to dissolve the union because of the inability to reach a collective bargaining agreement with the league.

The NHL and its locked-out players might turn up in a courtroom before they find their way back onto the ice.