A season on the brink

ESPN.com is reporting that an anonymous owner is claiming that the season will be cancelled as early as the end of today's "negotiating" session. If true, the NHL would be the first professional sports league to lose an entire season to a labor dispute. I have two thought processes on this. One says that this is absoloutely accurate and comes as no surprise whatsoever. However, the conspiracy theorist in me says that this is a planted story from the league to help spur today's negotiations along. UPDATE (9:40 PM): The two sides began their meeting at about 1:30 this afternoon with no word throughout the day on the progress of the negotiations. A statement was released by the league about an hour ago. "In deference to the process, there will be no comment, and no further update is expected tonight." One can only take this as positive news, that both sides realize -- finally -- what awaits them if they continue down the path they've been on.