Last week, for a time at least, it seemed like hockey was on its way back. As we near the one-week anniversary of the day the owners appeared to extend a real offer for a new CBA that could save a full 82-game season, the outlook isn’t that promising or clear. What is clear is that this is a big week for the NHL, and with no negotiations currently scheduled, it’s hard to see where things will stand a week from now. 

The obvious question is "why?"

Why, literally two days after the owners’ offer last week, did further negotiations last only an hour, with each side leaving the meeting with their proverbial arms crossed and four total offers deemed unacceptable?

The owners would love for you to believe it’s as simple as the players not taking what they got a lot of people to believe was a fair deal. As is always the case with the NHL, it’s a little more complicated (and probably more frustrating) than that. 

The biggest thing that last week’s shenanigans may have changed is perception, but perception doesn’t get games on the ice. 

What you have here is one side (the league) that was pretty much going to viewed in an ugly light no matter what. Entering the lockout, the vast majority of fans and media viewed this whole thing as the owners wanting to take more money from the players while the players simply wanted to keep the dough they had been promised. 

That all changed last Tuesday when the owners offered a very shiny proposal that was headlined by such language as a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue and no rollbacks on the players’ contracts. The 50-50 part was all fans needed to hear, and the common sentiment among fans, emailers, readers, tweeters – really, you name it – was “Thank goodness, now just take it.”

The proposal just so happened to come one day after details of the NHL focus-grouping the lockout to better grasp the perception of commissioner Gary Bettman and the owners amongst fans emerged. As such, there was reason at the time of the proposal to be skeptical that it was nothing more than a bid to help the league’s image in the court of public opinion. 

Perhaps the sole purpose of that offer (after all, “50-50,” however it is calculated, sounds fair, doesn’t it?) was to make it seem like the NHLPA is the only thing keeping games from being played right now, while the league just wants a resolution. That’s a far cry from the pre-lockout sentiment that the players just wanted to play but the suits were trying to take their money like they did seven years ago, isn’t it? 

By the looks of commenters on TSN articles and other hockey-centric news sites, it seems the owners’ mission to change opinion has helped. Over the weekend, the league further perpetuated this idea that it’s on the players when deputy commissioner Bill Daly said there’s, “a framework of a deal on the table.” In other words, Daly was saying there’s a fair offer out there, and the union just hasn’t accepted it. Of course, Donald Fehr and the NHLPA had offered three counterproposals based on that proposal that the league rejected outright, but who’s counting?

From TSN: 

"There are multiple frameworks for a deal on the table," said Steve Fehr, the NHLPA's special counsel. "We gave them three good ones on Thursday. Each moves toward a 50-50 split of (hockey-related revenue) that the league wants. Each allows the contracts in place to be honored.

"Unfortunately, after considering these proposals for about 10 minutes the league rejected them and essentially said that they are not moving off their last proposal."

Even if the owners’ willingness to offer a deal with commercial appeal may have won over some fans, it hasn’t changed the minds of some of the more outspoken players in the league. Alexander Ovechkin, who has threatened to have his NHL deal annulled and stay in the KHL if the new CBA takes away enough of his contract, blasted the league and their most recent offer over the weekend. 

"I don't think (the) lockout will end soon," Ovechkin said. "Bettman decided to throw the dust in our eyes because media isn't talking about him very well lately. But actually the offer they gave is the same one, just in other words. A great person is the head of the union with great experience. He'll break it down, explain to us, and we'll make the decision.

"There are a lot of nuances, a lot of hidden rocks. And all of them are in the league's favor. Why in the world should our salaries be cut down? They say, 'Let's shorten the contracts to five years, then take 24 percent back.' And what will be left? You offered that salary and now you take it back? That's why there's a lockout."

The popular line of thinking, which Bettman has said, is that the sides have until Thursday to agree on a CBA to save the entire season. Games would need to start being played by Nov. 2, with each team playing an extra game every five weeks and extending the length of the regular-season to make up for the games that have been cancelled thus far (10 in the Bruins’ case). 

If a deal can be reached, all will be right in the hockey world. Games will be played in November, the league will get its first NBC game in on Nov. 23 (Bruins-Rangers) and the HBO cameras will be able to roll for a third season of 24/7 leading up to the Jan. 1 Winter Classic between the Red Wings and Maple Leafs. If not, you can start to worry, provided you were silly enough to ever stop.