The more I hear from tonight the more I like. I will keep adding to this blog as more info comes in but here is what I am feling confident about tonight.

If there was any question as to who is running these negotiations it has become apparent the players are in control here...Fehr brings experience and rubs the owners the wrong way to be certain. But these are the ways of negotiations. They can get ugly.

All that said, the players hold the cards. And when almost 20 of them showed up in NY tonight it became all to obvious they realize this is THEIR game and THEIR responsibility to get on track.

Tonight I am told went a great way towards clarifying the discussion over the past few weeks that the Owners WON'T negotiate the contractual issues. They will. But now the players have a bigger task over the next 48 hours to bring the economic issues closer together. To meet the owners near the 50/50 mark. I firmly believe if the players came back with a deal saying the percentages would drop to 54% this year, 52 next, 51 next, and then 50 for the next 5 years we will be paying hockey in December. The players would have to accept the NHL not making whole in year 1, too many unknowns this season, but the make whole (with interest) in years 2,3,4...give it a shot.

The owners are dying to hear such an offer from the players...they may not take it...but it sure as hell would get the ball rolling down hill.

The NHL is demanding hard proposals and players need to not take that lightly.

I can flat out tell you this. The players today are not the players of '04-05. In '04-05 the players had a moment or two like this, but they decided to wait out the owners and they learned NHL owners believe they can survive missed seasons more than they should. I don't get any sense at all these players aren't going to be proactive this time...In fact I get a sense they are rallying now to save this.

Some are finding tonight's meetings discouraging...I am not. The way it ended last time these sides met we needed a night like this...to get back on track and clear up some issues.

Hard work is still ahead, but it sure is worth it to save a sport.

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