So if you're the players, what do you do now? Do you believe this is really the NHL's best offer, when the owners have bluffed before? Do you dig in? Decertify? Negotiate? Capitulate?

And if you're the owners, what do you do now? Do you believe this is really the best strategy, that in time the players will just see the light? Do you dig in? Keep canceling? Wait for them to blink again? Wait for them to break?

Does either side really want to go to the brink, let alone beyond? It seems there are varying opinions within both camps, some feeling Bettman and Fehr have gone too far, others feeling they haven't gone far enough to get this done.

Round and round we go – hopefully spinning toward the center, a resolution, some kind of season, and not spiraling down the drain.

-Nicholas j. Cotsonika of Yahoo. Read more on how close the sides ar to striking a deal.