Talks resume

Canadian Press is reporting that talks have resumed late this morning in Toronto between the NHL and the Players' Association. Updates coming as necessary. UPDATE (12:35 PM): Scott Burnside, writing on ESPN.com, takes several potshots at Bettman and yesterday's offer from the owners: [T]his deal is no different than any of the others offered up by Bettman. It has an idiot-proof salary cap, this time buried under a lot of dressing. In the end Wednesday hockey fans got a little bit of what they craved. A line in the sand. An end point. A moment of truth. A deadline. What they didn't get was a real shot at a solution. The most telling part of Bettman's address was his rationalization for a proposal that is essentially two different philosophies jammed uncomfortably into the same collective bargaining agreement, as opposed to an actual negotiated settlement. "We didn't seem to be able to come up with a middle or common ground," Bettman said. That's because he never looked. Ouch. UPDATE (3:30 PM): The Fan 590 is reporting that talks have broken off for the day with no progress made. The meeting took place from about 11:00 AM to about 3:00 PM. NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly is scheduled to speak to the media at around 4:00 PM. UPDATE (5:00 PM): I'll have some quotes up from Daly's press conference sometime tonight. Not suprisingly, it doesn't sound good. NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin is scheduled to hold a press conference in about 15 minutes. UPDATE (8:48 pm): I was going to post some of the quotes from the two press conferences, but then I found that Off Wing Opinion had already taken care of it. So, instead of typing them up all over again, I'll just link over to Eric's site for you. I will, however, leave you with one quote each from Bob Daly and Ted Saskin that illustrate exactly where the negotiations stand. Daly: We will not reach out to the union at this point Saskin: We're not going to pick up the phone this weekend.