from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

When it’s quiet, that’s usually when real work is finally getting done.

Let’s not carried away here. This thing can still go sideways and implode. It’s still too early to call.

But there was real talk Tuesday. Sources on both sides were tight-lipped and very much guarded in their optimism.

The lead-up to Tuesday’s meeting was talk that the league was willing to fund a sizeable part of the Make Whole provision -- honoring players’ existing contracts. Players I spoke with over the past few days wanted to know more details about the league’s new ideas -- or as one player said, "the fine print" -- before getting too excited.

But sources on both sides said that revenue sharing and player contract issues were the focus of Tuesday's meeting and discussion of the Make Whole provision was shelved until Wednesday....

My sense is that the NHLPA had a message for the league in Tuesday’s meeting: since the players are willing to give a huge concession by going down from 57 percent of hockey-related revenue in the last CBA to a 50-50 split in the proposed new agreement, there wasn’t much of an appetite to give up too much on the systemic player contract issues.

The league’s demands of limiting player contract to five years, for example, might be too much to swallow for the NHLPA. And I think when push comes to shove on the league side, that’s not the kind of issue that should stop a deal from happening.

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