RANGERS 101

The 2012-13 regular season was slated to being last night, but with the NHL and NHL Players' Association failing to come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement, the "start of the season" was brought in my more negotiations — that went nowhere.

There truly is no end in sight in this lockout. Even Joe Thornton said he is "now expecting to play the whole season in Switzerland."

The two sides met for the second straight day Thursday, and didn't discuss any core economic issues. Instead, the day's double-session dealt with only with secondary issues such as free agency and drug testing. They didn't make much headway in those areas, and to make matters worse, both NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr weren't present.

The union suggested meeting today, but the league declined due to scheduling conflicts. There are no future meetings scheduled.

"Until we're tackling the major issues, I'm not sure what the urgency is to meet on a 24/7 basis," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.

This has taken a turn for the worse for the players, as they haven't even made a dent in the negotiations.

On a side note, what possible scheduling conflicts could the league have to cancel a meeting? They've already cut hours for many employees. Are they really just telling the players and fans that they have better things to do?

The league is pointing fingers at the player's union for the way the negotiations are playing out.

Daly said he was disheartened with the state of negotiations, especially considering the significance of the date on the calendar.

"It's a disappointment. There's no way around that," Daly said. "I certainly hoped and would've expected we'd be in a different place today. I would've expected we would've had an agreement. I would've expected we'd be dropping the puck."

"In retrospect, I look back at it and, while we were all hopeful that there was plenty of time to get a deal done, maybe the fault lies in the fact that we didn't start negotiations until June 29. Again, that goes back to the level of urgency with the players' association and not being prepared to have those discussions."

Tags: Bill Daly, Donald Fehr, Gary Bettman, Hockey, Joe Thornton, New York, New York Rangers, NHL, NHL Players' Association, NHLPA

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