Dark Days Ahead For NHL As Talks End With No Progress

The NHL and NHLPA met for two hours on Tuesday to discuss the the current lockout situation, focusing on hockey-related revenue.  When it was first announced that the two sides were meeting it brought out a glimmer of optimism from the fans but now that has faded with dark days seemingly in the league’s future.

The bad news came straight from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly when he told reporters how the meetings went, courtesy of TSN.ca.  

"“No progress was made. Unless they show some willingness to compromise, I don’t know how we get this done.”"

Those are heavy words from the player’s side implying that the two sides are so far apart on the main issues at hand that watching NHL hockey this season is becoming doubtful.  To make matters worse, the two sides have no intentions of meeting again anytime soon as no future talks were planned.

There were three days of meetings that took place on the weekend and while progress was made on the secondary items such as drug testing and player’s health and safety, the discussions of the $3 billion dollar revenue sharing and how that would be split wasn’t even on the agenda.

Today’s meetings were to define what makes up the $3 billion dollar purse and if the two sides can’t agree on that, how in the world can they agree on how to split it up.

The regular season schedule is set to begin on October 11 and that has now come into serious jeopardy.  Buckle up hockey fans, this one could be as bumpy of a ride as it was eight years ago.