Thursday is here, the day set by the NHL to get a deal done in order to have an 82-game season and for both sides put the mess of the lockout behind them. Instead, as we wrote yesterday, Gary Bettman said more games could be canceled soon, with the Winter Classic also up in the air.

It's gotten so crazy, even the President of the United States had something to say during his appearance on "The Tonight Show." If you can't click on the video on the right, CBC Sports provided the quotes: "Every time these things happen I just want to remind the owners and players: You guys make money because you've got a whole bunch of fans out there who are working really hard -- they buy tickets, they're watching on TV," he said. "Y'all should be able to figure this out. Get this done."

It's far from the first time President Obama has commented on a lockout with Jay Leno. Nearly a year ago to the day, he discussed the NBA lockout with a similar message, as The Washington Post detailed. "They need to remind themselves that the reason they are so successful is because a whole bunch of folks out there love basketball. Basketball has actually done well, but these types of lockouts take a long time to recover from," he said.

The NHL could be in for a long recovery if the league begins to cancel more games. As Tom Gulitti of The Record pointed out on Twitter, that should happen Friday.

In other lockout news:

ESPN's Sarah Spain wrote

In case you missed it, yesterday's NHL headlines were dominated by