SCOTT BURNSIDE: ... I recall a conversation you and I had just before you went off the grid for the summer, when I suggested the two sides would get a deal done and we wouldn’t miss anything, including training camp. You scoffed at me (not the first time nor will it be the last) and here you are, vindicated. Why didn’t you expect things to get rolling before the Sept. 15 deadline that marks the end of the current CBA?

PIERRE LEBRUN: Call me cynical after surviving the daily, yearlong coverage of the lockout that wiped out the entire 2004-05 season. Nothing gets done without real, pressure-packed deadlines. The fact is, neither side was ever going to show its best hand this summer, weeks ahead of the Sept. 15 expiry of the CBA. That’s the poker game. And so, all along, I think it was clear next week was going to be paramount in really getting things going on the CBA negotiating front. Once Gary Bettman gets approval from owners next Thursday to proceed with a lockout of players, it will instill the needed urgency on both sides to get back to business....

KATIE STRANG: While I can’t speak from previous experience -- after all, you are the grizzled (and I do mean, grizzled) old vet -- I do get the sense there is a stark difference in these negotiations from those eight years prior. Both sides insist that the dialogue has been constructive and civil and that common ground on the secondary issues has been forged. It also seems as if the level of engagement from the players’ end is much stronger.

more from the three at ESPN...