NHL Labor Talks: No Progress, More Rhetoric.

Emerging from the latest bargaining session between the NHL and its Players' Association, league commissioner Gary Bettman offered the following: "It takes two to make a deal."

Brilliant. Probing a little deeper, we find that Wednesday's meeting lasted just four hours, and apparently ended with both sides entrenched in their not-very-compatible visions of the future.

"Gary Bettman's objective from the beginning was to bring this to a lockout in order to put economic pressure on the players," says Ted Saskin, the NHLPA's senior director, according to a Canadian Press report. "We just have to continue to work at it. We haven't made much progress to date."

The next meeting is scheduled for August 17, less than one month before the expiry of the current collective bargaining agreement.

NHL Collective Bargaining Basics: Looking to cut through all the numbers, jargon and propaganda? Check our simple guide to the current NHL labor dispute.