LOCKOUT: Day 60 – On to Act III.

I wonder when the NHL will cancel the December games. It’s just a matter of time now. With the latest series of breakdowns between the NHL and the players union, hope for forward progress has come to a halt with no real idea when the parties will put up with each other for any period of time. ”No, we have not communicated today,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press today in an e-mail. ”No meetings scheduled, and no plans to meet.” They won’t even take each others calls.

After four days of talks in New York last week, talks broke off angrily Friday night.  Jeremy Jacobs has been rumored to be the force that turned the road to a deal to the road to perdition.  The parties did resume discussions again last Sunday. Regretfully, the talks were used only to bring player contract terms and the meeting ended in an hour and a half.  So, is all hope lost for us this year?

”The players remain prepared to resume negotiations at any time,” NHLPA’s #2, Steve Fehr said. Bill Daly also chimed in on the league’s determination not to further abridge the season. “At this point, no decisions have been made to call off any more games.”Daly said.  Well, it’s nice to see that the parties agree that hockey should be played on ice, the puck should be hit with sticks, and that neither side wants to lose any more games. As of last count, the league (and the fans) have lost three hundred and twenty eight games, including the PR boon Winter Classic to the second longest work stoppage in NHL history.

Any hope on the horizon? Probably not. Bill Daly  told the New York Times’ Chris Botta this week that the NHL was “done making proposals. We’ll see what they want to do.”