from James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail,

So the NHL is tired of talking to “a baseball guy” and trying to take its message directly to the players, looking for a sympathetic ear.

Such an end-around isn’t unusual – after all, it happened during the last lockout – but it usually comes as part of an endgame strategy.

Are we that far along already? Maybe.

But this time around it is as much to do with (a) testing the players’ resolve and (b) frustration with NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr’s dour consistency as anything.

It’s also a sign the league is getting a little anxious – and that a compromise that can end this lockout could actually not be as far away as the rhetoric suggests.

What the NHL is really doing here is fishing for weak points in the membership: players who really don’t want to miss paycheques and are willing to consider the not quite 50-50 offer on the table.

It doesn’t sound like they found all that many.

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