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.
Negotiators from the NHL and the players' association made it into the same room to talk this time. They just didn't carry any meaningful progress out of it.
Donald Fehr thought he and the hockey players he leads were close to a deal to save the season. The NHL said not so fast, and then took away everything that created all the optimism in the first place.
The tenor turned a bit after a second straight marathon day of NHL labor talks. Gone was some of the lightheartedness and rare optimism expressed about 24 hours earlier. Representatives of the league and the players both said Wednesday's long talks were "candid" and offered some sense of hope by announcing negotiations would resume later Thursday.
The best news on the 80th day of the NHL lockout was that hockey owners and players did most of their talking in front of each other instead of making public statements.