from Michael Grange of Sportsnet,

As one player agent told me this week, "With all due respect to Don Fehr, this is when he really earns his money. A barrel full of monkeys could get this to 90 per cent of the way done. Now he's got to take it home."

He started in earnest on Tuesday in Manhattan in a seven-hour meeting at an undisclosed midtown location that was the longest session by far of the 53-day lockout and the longest since negotiations on a new CBA began June 29.

It will be interesting to see if the former head of the Major League Baseball Players Association can keep it on the road and get everyone back in one piece. The criticism of Fehr by those opposite him in negotiations has been that he's not a deal maker. He's not one for compromise.

Fehr's response has generally been it takes intransigence to recognize intransigence.

But Fehr's job is a delicate one. He needs to balance the needs of players with interests as diverse as Sidney Crosby, who has a 12-year, $104-million contract at stake with Chris Campoli, an unsigned free agent whose longest deal was his entry-level contract and has been on one-year deals since.

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