NHL executive Bill Daly and the NHLPA’s Steve Fehr stand next to each other during last night’s press conference. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Bennett – Getty Images

Last night we reported that talks between the NHL owners and players went so well that not only was the first meeting very long and productive but they also met again later in the night. The same group of guys are expected to meet again this morning.

There were 18 players involved in yesterday’s talks and the players present at the meeting were Craig Adams, David Backes, Michael Cammalleri, Sidney Crosby, BJ Crombeen, Mathieu Darche, Shane Doan, Ron Hainsey, Shawn Horcoff, Jamal Mayers, Manny Malhotra, Andy McDonald, Ryan Miller, George Parros, Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis, Jonathan Toews and Kevin Westgarth. As you can see there are some superstars on this list, some average players and some role players. In my opinion the NHLPA did a great job in ensuring every kind of player was represented in the meeting.

Those players spent the afternoon and evening in serious collective bargaining agreement talks with six different owners and those owners were Jeremy Jacobs of the Boston Bruins, Ronald Burkle of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mark Chipman of the Winnipeg Jets, Jeffery Vinik of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Murray Edwards of the Calgary Flames and Larry Tanenbaum of the Toronto Maple Leafs

After the two sides met, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA special counsel Steve Fehr held a press conference together  (a first and a positive sign within itself) and both expressed a cautious optimism. It appears both sides are finally willing to make a deal and actually negotiate while working towards a new CBA and potentially ending the lockout.

According to the Associated Press, this is what the NHLPA’s Steve Fehr had to say, “We had a long day. We thought it was a constructive day. We had a good dialogue. In some ways I’d say it might be the best day we’ve had, which isn’t too overly optimistic of a picture. There is still a lot of work to do and a lot to be done. We will be back at it tomorrow morning.”

The NHL’s Bill Daly followed that up with, “I appreciate the efforts of the players. Everybody is working hard. I think everybody wants to get a deal done, so that’s encouraging. We look forward to hopefully making more progress tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll have more to update you on tomorrow. We are going forward with our board meeting. Hopefully be back at it after that, as well.”

Also happening today, the NHL Board of Governors is expected to convene followed by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman holding a press conference tentatively scheduled for 1PM EST today. Hopefully we’ll get some more news about the negotiations and where this thing is headed. It appears as though it will be another busy day for the NHL.

Finally for us fans, it seems as though some good will (hey, it is the Holiday season) has entered the negotiating room and both sides appear to be willing to do what it takes to end the lockout and possibly save the 2012-13 NHL season. I should note that many in the media believe a 50-60 game season is within reach if the two sides can strike a deal by the weekend.

Lets all just hope the NHL and NHLPA are serious this time and not once again getting our hopes up so they can eventually tell us talks have stalled again and things look bleak.

United States first lady Michelle Obama (r) talks with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman (l) during the ceremony to honor the Chicago Blackhawks 2010 Stanley Cup championship. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-US PRESSWIRE

After only two days of federal mediation it appears as though the NHL and NHLPA have made little to no progress in their current collective bargaining agreement talks, even with mediators present.

Talks between the two sides stalled last week after the NHL quickly turned down the NHLPA’s latest CBA proposal and they both decided federal mediation could possibly help. They met with mediators on both Wednesday and Thursday but no one knows where or for how long.

The mediation wasn’t binding and both sides allegedly entered the mediation process in the hopes of making some headway in ending the lockout. Obviously it didn’t work out that way but hey, at least they “tried” right?

According to Yahoo’s Puck Daddy, NHL executive Bill Daly had this to say, “Today, we concluded two days of mediation with FMCS mediators and representatives of the NHL Players’ Association. After spending several hours with both sides over two days, the presiding mediators concluded that the parties remained far apart and that no progress toward a resolution could be made through further mediation at this point in time. We are disappointed that the mediation process was not successful.”

Its tough to tell how far apart the two sides remain and with the board of governors set to meet next week for the NHL, I don’t see a deal being struck anytime this week, even if a growing number of players are calling for the decertification of the NHLPA.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman speaks during a press conference. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-US PRESSWIRE

The NHL and NHLPA were back this past Wednesday, this time with the help of professional mediation. The two sides haven’t met since last week when the NHL shot down the NHLPA’s latest collective bargaining agreement proposal. This led to the two sides eventually agreeing on mediation.

Although the location of the meeting was a secret as well as what was talked about, we can take solace in the fact that at least the two sides are meeting and are now accompanied by some outside voices and eyes. Hopefully it helps as roughly 35% of the NHL regular season has already been cancelled and we’re on day 74 of this unnecessary lockout.

NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr issued a statement (more like two sentences), “A small group of NHLPA staff and players met today with two experienced FMCS mediators. We expect that these discussions will resume on Thursday.”

NHL executive Bill Daly’s email to the Associated Press was even shorter, “No comments”.

Hopefully the meeting was longer than Bill Daly’s email but with the way these two sides negotiate who knows. Speaking of length, apparently the NHL is looking for a 7 year long CBA, but the NHLPA feels that is too long because they say half of the current players will not be playing in the league by the 7th and final year.

I say who cares. With their third work stoppage since 1994, who even knows if the NHL will still be around 7 years.