(PhatzRadio / CBC Sports) — The NHL and the players’ association will resume negotiations on Wednesday in an effort to avoid a lockout this weekend.
After not meeting face to face since last Friday, the sides planned to get together at the league office in New York before the NHLPA holds player meetings later Wednesday.
The NHL board of governors will convene on Thursday with Commissioner Gary Bettman, while the union holds a second day of discussions with as many as 250 players.
The hastily scheduled negotiating session for Wednesday came just hours after NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said owners and players were both to blame for their failure to reach a new collective bargaining agreement before current deal expires on Saturday.
Daly wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday that he hoped both sides would meet before Saturday, but didn’t sound optimistic it would happen.
“To this point, we have received no indication that the union has anything new to say to us. And right now, we have nothing new to say to them,” he wrote Tuesday. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s the reality of the situation.”
