from Elliotte Friedman of CBC,

As I write this at 6:20 pm (ET) Thursday, this looks like a wasted day. A lot of you have pointed out on twitter that these have been four wasted months. Touche. But this is poor form because it poisons the water so close to the end of the process.

The players were angered this morning because the HRR package received from the NHL was "missing" some key language. The critical part involved penalties for teams hiding HRR. In 2011, the two sides had a dispute over what was reported by Washington and Nashville, and with such erosion of trust right now, you can imagine the reaction to this.

This led to a meeting where the NHL restored the penalties. All I try to do when analyzing this process is consider how I'd feel in each sides' shoes. If I was a player, I'd be supremely annoyed. Even the moderate guys were cheesed, believing this to be proof the NHL is not serious about making a deal right now.

Ultimately, strong leadership and cooler heads will prevail, because the alternative is worse. But it adds an extra, unnecessary, layer of trouble.

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