The owners, faced with months more of this kind of interaction, basically allowed Fehr’s passive aggressive brilliance do them in. It will be interesting to see what more Fehr has up his sleeve as the owners and players negotiate the details and exchange counteroffers over the next week or so.

But even if Fehr doesn’t gain a single concession off this offer, he has already won. The NHL was negotiating against itself and it still managed to lose. So we can probably look forward to at least eight more uninterrupted years of hockey and of the players laying a beating on their employers.

-Ken Campbell of The Hockey News. Read more from Campbell on this topic.