Federal mediators may re-enter talks to end the NHL lockout, as players requested that mediators be brought back in earlier in the week and still want them back, sources said. Meanwhile, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly in an e-mail said, "Supposed to have a meeting with Union sometime this afternoon. Won't know what our position might be on mediators (or whether we even need mediators) until the conclusion of that meeting." FMCS spokesman John Arnold said in an e-mail, “The mediators remain in contact with the parties, but we have no further comment.”
The players first requested that mediators from the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service be brought back into the talks on Tuesday, but they were not available due to the fact that they were mediating talks to end the Port of L.A. strike. That strike ended yesterday. Daly noted that since the mediators were not available to NHL talks, the players and owners continued talking. "We worked on, hashed through and sharpened issues without the mediators, and exchanged our thoughts and ideas and made some moves," Daly wrote. "Let's see where it gets us before deciding next steps."
