from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun at the Toronto Sun,

Sources say the NHLPA is concerned about too many givebacks to the league at this juncture of the negotiations. Fehr and company don't believe this is the tipping point and the players aren't ready to cave as they prepare to lose their fourth paycheque next week.

Yes, the players want to get back to playing, but they also don't want to wave the white towel by offering up a proposal that the NHL is going to rush to accept. The players are willing to go to a 50-50 revenue split, but they want to make sure all contracts are honoured.

Even if the players do give up more on the core economic issues, including the 'Make Whole' for existing contracts, then the two sides still have to get past the contract issues which the league has maintained are non-negotiable because the two sides are past the point of give and take.

As reported Tuesday, Fehr has been getting pressure from some agents to get a deal done. Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos told his HockeyCentral at Noon audience "there are about a dozen" players -- some of them high profile -- putting pressure on the union to get a deal done.

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added 7:49pm,

from Kevin Allen of USA TODAY,

The highly competitive nature of NHL players can't change the reality that they never had a chance at winning their negotiations with owners.

As soon as NFL and NBA players agreed to concessions, NHL players clearly understood that winning was no longer an option. This was not an even playing field. The best they could hope for was to fight as aggressively as they could to hang onto as much as they could.

Today (tomorrow) will be the most pivotal day in these negotiations because the NHL Players' Association is at the point where executive director Donald Fehr and players probably can negotiate their best deal without risking a financial Armageddon.

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