There were no deals announced, and there werent even any statements to the media from either the NHL or the NHLPA once the meetings had concluded.
But both sides met at an undisclosed location in New York City for 5hours on Wednesday as snow blanketed a city still fighting out from under the damage of Hurricane Sandy. The two sides have now met for over 12 hours in the last two days after not speaking at all for 19 consecutive days, and both the league and the players agreed to meet again on Thursday in parts unknown.
"The NHL's negotiating committee met with representatives of the NHLPA for approximately 5-12 hours today," said Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. "Meetings are scheduled to resume tomorrow. We do not intend to comment on the substance or subject matter of today's negotiations."
"The NHL and NHLPA met to discuss many of the key issues," said NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr. "We look forward to resuming talks tomorrow."
According to multiple reports, the bulk of Wednesdays session was concerning revenue sharing and the make whole provision proposed by the NHL. The make whole proposal is expected to again be the subject of discussion on Thursday. There were only eight players at the second day of meetings as several players skipped out of New York City ahead of the NorEasterincluding Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby.
Bruins forwards Shawn Thornton and Milan Lucic were once again among the players present at the meetings for the second day in a row, and they were joined by David Backes, Chris Campoli, Mathieu Darche, Ron Hainsey, Manny Malhotra and Kevin Westgarth.
One of the really encouraging developments of the last few days is that the two sides have decided to favor clandestine meetings with few information leaks, and that is expected to continue on Thursday. The pattern of silence is expected to continue then.
Hockey fans should be encouraged that both sides have created a healthy, comprehensive dialogue over the last few days. That's pretty self-evident when hour-long sessions had been considered long before this week.
But the NHL and NHLPA are at least a few breakthroughs away from a done deal, and those aren't guaranteed to happen in the next couple of days.