from Elliotte Friedman of CBC,

By 11:59 pm (ET) Wednesday night, we're going to know if the players think a deal is getting done.

That is the deadline for the NHLPA to file its Disclaimer of Interest in court. And, if the union sees an end to this gong show, the chances decrease, significantly, that the filing gets made. If things devolve into a Fugitive-style train wreck, well, the lawyers get even busier.

Tweeters have asked several questions about this process. Here are some answers:

• The document does not need to be filed by 5 pm because it can be done online
• Even if the NHLPA allows this deadline to pass, its members can always vote again to allow the executive committee to use this process. But this mandate ends at the stroke of midnight Wednesday.

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