from Bruce Arthur of the National Post,

Essentially, they are fighting over US$150-million in salary cap space in 2013-14, which might be clawed back by escrow anyway. They are fighting over pensions, which the league had previously agreed to, and which constitutes a rowboat of potential financial liability in what will eventually be a small ocean of revenue. They are fighting over a number of structural niceties that, in the end, are not a hill that anybody should die on. (The NHLPA reportedly will take a 10-year CBA with an opt-out after seven years; the NHL wants an opt-out after eight. Player contract term limits are believed to have a similarly minor difference).

They are using the clock, jockeying for whatever is left. This is the calculated bravado that grips the endgame. Whose threats do you believe? Whose bluffs will you call? Which omens matter, and which ones are air? And who doesn’t lie?

This is how the lockout ends. Or, on the off chance someone miscalculates badly enough, doesn’t.

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