There doesn't need to be a lockout. At least there doesn't need to be a long one. At least in theory.

Unlike 2004-05, when the NHL canceled an entire season, the structure of the sport is not at stake. The players are not challenging the salary cap. The owners are not challenging guaranteed contracts. The players have offered to take less money, just not enough to satisfy the owners. The owners have offered to increase revenue sharing, just not enough to satisfy the players.

There are other issues, important ones. But when it comes to the core economics, the shut-down-the-game stuff, the sides are generally working inside the same system. This should be about negotiations, about numbers, about finding the levels both sides can accept.

Though the sides are far apart, there should be enough common ground for the NHL and the NHL Players' Association to compromise and reach a new collective bargaining agreement – or, bare minimum, for them to sit down and talk about it.

And that is what is so disappointing about this situation.

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Here we are a little more than a week before the CBA expires on Sept. 15, and the sides haven't spoken formally since Friday. Though NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA outside counsel Steve Fehr had dinner together Wednesday night in New York, that did not result in the scheduling of new talks.

The main sticking point at the moment: The owners want the players to take an immediate pay cut. The players are willing only to take less of a raise in the future.

"I think an important issue as articulated to us is, they're not willing to go backwards in absolute dollars," Daly said, "and certainly our last proposal suggested they make some concessions on absolute dollars."

NHLPA executive director Don Fehr said: "What the players have said, and what they believe is the appropriate way to conclude a contract, is to limit the player share increases to specific amounts over the next few years. We've suggested three, in order to give the league an opportunity to grow its way out of the problem. And if they can continue to generate revenues the way they have, and even if the average is far lower than what it was the last two years, then this will produce an awful lot of money for them. We think that's the best way to do it."

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Unless this is just part of the dance, the sides saving their best for a last flurry before the deadline, a lockout seems inevitable on Sept. 16. We'll be left to wonder what the real pressure points will be: When the NHL starts canceling regular-season games? When the players start losing paychecks? When the lockout threatens NBC games or the Winter Classic? We'll be left to wonder why they couldn't get a deal done now.

The most ominous sign? The owners know how bad this looks. They sacrificed a season, broke the union, got the "cost- certainty" they wanted and forced the players to make major concessions, and now they're back for more because they say they need more money to cover their costs, asking the players to take a smaller slice of a smaller pie. They know commissioner Gary Bettman is the bad guy. They know the fans will be upset with the third lockout since 1994-95. They know sponsors and investors are wary to pump money into a league that might not be playing. And yet they still think a lockout would be in their best interest.

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