from Damian Cox of The Spin at the Toronto Star,

And as if a bell went off, the moment the calender switched over to November, the serious talks began.

Both sides have already achieved a twisted version of what they wanted, which should clear the way for a deal now. The NHL will, in some form or another, get their 50-50 split, and they'll be able to crow that they handled Fehr in a way that baseball never could.

The union, meanwhile, will have its manhood back, and they'll have used a dislike for Gary Bettman as a rallying cry, and they'll know, as they always know, that agents will make sure that loopholes and cracks are found in the new deal that will ensure they end up ahead down the road, just as they experienced enormous salary increases after "losing" the last lockout.

Hey, it could still get screwed up, and in its bloodless calculations, the NHL quite likely never anticipated losing the lucrative Winter Classic. Talks will resume tomorrow after some fruitful weekend discussions produced some intriguing new approaches, and while the nature of labour negotiations probably mandates there will be at least one more occasion when one side or the other stalks away from the talks and panic of another cancelled season erupts, playing by early December looks about right now.

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