TORONTO (CP) - The NHL's labour talks are stuck in a holding pattern.
Despite 9 1/2 hours of talks over two days, the season doesn't appear to be any closer to being saved.
''The differences of opinion remain, and they're differences that are strongly felt between the respective sides,'' Ted Saskin, senior director of the NHL Players' Association, said after Thursday's 4 1/2-hour meeting.
''There's certainly enough areas of disagreement between us that's certainly not allowing us to make much progress,'' he added.
Bill Daly, the NHL's executive vice-president and chief legal officer, said the same.
''Two good days of discussion, but we still have very strong philosophical differences,'' he told reporters after the meeting wrapped up at an airport hotel.
And the man who initiated the talks didn't speak to the media afterwards. NHLPA president Trevor Linden released a one-line statement, noting the sides remained ''divided philosophically.''
The same major hurdle remains in the way of any progress: the owners' insistence on `cost certainty' - a salary cap.
''That's clearly a central issue,'' Saskin said.
If there's a positive, it's that both sides are finally doing some real talking, not just slapping down proposals and having them rejected. That's what happened in their previous three meetings Sept. 9, Dec. 9 and Dec. 14.
''We certainly haven't had dialogue in a long time,'' agreed Saskin.
But more than dialogue is needed at this critical juncture of the calendar as the season slips away. It's time for real negotiation. Few believe a season can be salvaged if there's new deal in place by the end of the month at the latest, if not as early as next Friday.
''We all know that time is not our ally in this process,'' said Saskin.
So what now?
Another meeting is not scheduled at this point, but odds are both sides will meet again sometime next week.
Both Daly and Saskin said ''the lines of communication'' remained open.
The two day-session was described by Daly as ''the best dynamic to date in this process.''
''I give Trevor Linden a lot of credit for bringing us together again,'' Daly added.
But still very little head way, if any. Asked what the two sides have to talk about, given their positions on the salary cap issue, Daly replied: ''We just continue to work very hard at trying to satisfy both parties.''
Said Saskin: ''We continue to look for ways to bridge the gaps.''
One idea that has been floated during the past week is a deal that would begin with a payroll tax model (NHLPA) and evolve into a fixed link between player costs and league revenues - cost certainty (NHL).
''No,'' Daly replied firmly when asked if that would ever fly, yet another reminder that owners are fully committed to getting their salary cap from Day 1 of the new agreement, and not a second later.
Talks, which had resumed Wednesday at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, started at 1 p.m. EST at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel at Pearson International Airport and wrapped up at 5:30 p.m.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL Players' Association executive director Bob Goodenow again sat out.
Those attending included Linden, Saskin and outside counsel John McCambridge plus Daly and league outside counsel Bob Batterman.
NHL board of governors chairman Harley Hotchkiss, in Chicago for the first session Wednesday, was not available Thursday because of the Calgary funeral of J.R. (Bud) McCaig, the part-owner of the Flames who died last Tuesday.
NHLPA executive committee members Bill Guerin, Bob Boughner, Vincent Damphousse and Trent Klatt were also in Toronto but did not attend the meeting. The union said they had been asked to come to get an update from Linden. Executive members Daniel Alfredsson, who is playing in Europe, and Arturs Irbe did not make the trip.
But the presence of the executive committee members, coupled with reports that some teams had told their players to be on standby, offered some optimism.
That was until the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Phoenix Coyotes, two of the teams reportedly telling their players to be prepared, shot down the reports.
''There's no substance to that whatsoever,'' said Ducks head coach Mike Babcock. ''That's not true at all.''
Phoenix GM Mike Barnett also denied his players were told to be on alert.
''That's completely erroneous,'' he said. ''I have not spoken to any members of our roster in two months. I don't even know where one-third of our roster is. Some of them are spread all over the globe. No one in our management group has contacted our players since November.''
It's the first back-to-back meetings between the two sides since they went three consecutive days, Aug. 31, Sept. 1-2 in Montreal, during the World Cup of Hockey.
More than half of the NHL season has already been scrapped by the lockout, which was announced Sept. 15 by Bettman. Through Thursday, 671 of the season's 1,230 regular-season games had gone by the wayside.
None of the four major professional sports in North America has ever gone beginning to end without a single game played. The Stanley Cup is in danger of not being awarded for the first time since the Spanish flu wiped out the 1919 final.