But with Jacobs threatening to abandon the talks, other owners spoke up, and then both sides dramatically backed away from the precipice. When talks ended close to 1 a.m. Thursday morning after more than eight hours of talks without NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and union executive director Don Fehr, it certainly seemed from the outside they were getting closer and closer to a deal to end this ugly lockout.

Continued, and things are indeed fragile, folks. As a fellow fan, I desperately want things to work out and to see my Red Wings skating at the Joe in January, but I'm sticking with, "Hopeful but not optimistic" for a reason.

During the 04-05 talks, the NHLPA's December 9th, 2004 proposal was at least taken well enough to form the backbone of the CBA that Bill Daly wrote while Ted Saskin nodded along, but the PA wouldn't budge on a $42 million hard cap de-linked from revenues, and the NHL wouldn't budge from what I believe was something like a $36 million cap with an ironclad link to a percentage of Hockey-Related Revenues, and the season was canceled as a result.

Things could go either way very quickly. Try not to get taken on this emotional roller coaster, because I know how emotionally exhausting it can be. Hockey wasn't as easy to follow in real time back in 04-05, but those of us in the know could nearly pull it off as well as Twitter allows us to these days, and it was heartbreaking when things fell apart. I hope things turn out differently this time around--desperately--but emotional caution is essential.