NHL owners, players resume talks

Owners and players resumed talks Wednesday after the NHL negotiating committee reviewed a contract proposal submitted by locked out players, NHL.com reported. The NHL and the NHL Players\' Association have been without a collective bargaining agreement since Sept. 16 and the league has canceled all scheduled games through Dec. 1, as well as the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic. The two sides met Monday for the first time in more than a week, following an acrimonious break in negotiations. Deputy NHL Commissioner Bill Daly said Tuesday owners had asked the NHLPA to develop a proposal encompassing its positions on all core economic issues. NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr said after Monday\'s session the union wanted to discuss one of the key sticking points in the 2-month-old lockout -- an NHL demand to crack down on the \"backloading\" of long-term deals, which the league sees as evasions of the salary cap. Fehr said the owners didn\'t want to address it as a stand-alone topic, but rather as part of a series of \"core\" economic issues that also include the players\' overall share of the revenue pie, NHL.com reported.