At a party last night, I met someone (I won't mention his name) and in casual coveration, I brought up the hockey/CBA stuff and as it turns out, he works for the CBC/HNIC . He's an off-camera guy (otherwise I would have knew who he was) but it was obvious to me he was very well informed. - even before I learned who he was. Anyway, I told him I thought there'd be hockey in January and he sort of laughed at me a little... He believes wholeheartedly that the season is done - Not a prayer. He believes nobody at this juncture wants a season this short and what we are seeing now is just (for the most part) optics. His people feel the two sides are just too far apart. He also went into who/where people (including himself) have recently been assigned to other projects, etc. and that it would be a massive undertaking to recall them given the importance of these new projects.
Personally, I haven't given up hope. Part of me feels this is just the CBC making a guess here and will have to suck it up and scramble if they're wrong and that there is certainly room for them to be. I still believe that there is still something can be salvaged out of this season but man, this certainly didn't make me feel good about the state of affairs here. Whatever is going on in New Jersey/New York (wherever they are right now) certainly could be the final hail Mary pass.