from Michael Grange of Sportsnet,

But Sunday afternoon came and went and in the space of about an hour suddenly the contract rights issues were worth missing more games or even a season over.

The NHL, seemingly holding the upper hand on the money -- no matter what happens in this negotiation, the owners' share of HRR is going up, it's just a matter of how much -- is getting religious about their contract issues too.

"The owners made it clear that there is no give with respect to their proposals," said Fehr.

"Unless the players are prepared to take them down to the comma. I don't know how you make an agreement if that's their position."

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, who often seems to have the air of compromise about him, suddenly was making it sound like the players had to bend or the talks were dead in the swamp.

"Those are important issues for us," said Daly. "I would have hoped in the past week they would have shown some movement on those issues towards us, knowing what the fundamental concerns are. The message we basically got was we know what your contracting proposals are; we're not prepared to agree to them. …. It does leave us in a difficult place"

The NHL's position here is puzzling. Why they seem determined to use their leverage to its maximum doesn't make a lot of sense.

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