from John Shannon of Sportsnet,

The hockey world watches, waits, prays.

The possibility of a season, any type of season, is in the balance. A Dec. 1 start date and a 70-game season looks attractive, very attractive if we can get a deal.

There are those that say the league is under huge pressure from the sponsors to play. Don't believe it. What NHL commissioner Gary Bettman thinks is important for the game is much more vital than what the people at Molson/Coors or NBC think. And don't believe that Donald Fehr is being dictated to by a group of militant players who are worried about their playing careers or paycheques.

The game (in the board room), you see, continues. It continues between owners and players, union vs. league, Gary vs. Don. And it will continue for the next week to 10 days. In saying that, however, is the assumption that there is some traction in the next 48 hours. There must be agreement on something before Friday be it contract lengths, revenue sharing, free agency, arbitration, entry level contracts or management rights. There has to be something these two sides actually agree on!

Until they do, we might as well be watching a real game show, if we actually knew where they were meeting, that is.

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