Wow.  I thought the NHL season would be cancelled last week, and now it'll likely be tomorrow (Wednesday), but now the NHLPA and the league are in last-minute hard-core negotiations.  But what's even more shocking is that the NHLPA has stood down and offered a salary cap: link [^]

After the months of tension, meaningless negotiations and rhetoric, the NHLPA finally broke down from their hard-line stance against a cap.  Since the World Cup of Hockey last summer we were all wondering which side would break first.  I thought it would be the NHLPA because they have the biggest stake in the dispute: it's their livelyhood. 

However the NHL rejected the deal.  I was suprised by that.  It's still too far away from what the owners are looking for and the cap needs to be lower than what the NHLPA offered.  When I read the first sentence of the article I thought for sure we'd be seeing hockey soon.  But then I read on and couldn't believe it. 

Now that the NHLPA has offered a cap, there has to be some common ground to meet on.  Unless the league has already made up its mind to cancel the season regardless of what is talked about this week, I don't believe that the two sides can't reach an agreement.