FromDamien Cox’s Spin on Sportsblog:

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NEW YORK—If people keep leaving, it may come down to an arm wrestle between Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr.

Jonathan Toews and Craig Adams left town on Wednesday. Today, Larry Tanenbaum and Mark Chipman bolted, and so did David Backes, the power centre of the St. Louis Blues. As tensions rise and tempers grow short, and with Bettman and Fehr expected to be back in the thick of things for the next meeting, the identities of who's here and who isn't continues to be a changing dynamic.

This we know. The owners-players format appears to be done. Mediation, requested by the players and denied by the owners today, isn't an open.

It's got to come down to Bettman and Fehr now, and it's probably got to come down to making a deal or not making a deal, with both sides having already lost hundreds of millions of dollars over the past 82 days.

The length of the next CBA has become a major issue. It shouldn't be, as 10 years makes a lot of sense to give this sport a chance to grow without the threat of labour stoppages.

"I love 10 years. Hell, I'd take 12 years," said one player agent, who said he believes there's enough in the mix now to make a deal today.

Fehr, however, seems against the idea, arguing that so many players will have changed over the next five years that its not fair to stick them with a deal they didn't negotiate.

Surely, that can't be the deal-breaker. But at this point, really, what should be?

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