Surprise: Bettman, Daly, and Fehr brothers meet in Toronto

Yesterday’s news and press releases surrounding the cancellation of the first two weeks of the season did nothing to soothe anyone’s ill feelings on how the lockout was going.

You can picture the surprise today with the news John Shannon of Sportsnet broke reporting that Gary Bettman, Bill Daly and the Fehr brothers, Donald and Steve, all met quietly in Toronto. Daly was straight to the point saying, “Yes we had a meeting. Nothing else to report at this time.”

Daly tells Tim Panaccio of CSNPhilly.com a bit more about what they discussed.

“General discussion of where we were and how to try to move process forward from here. We talked about possibly scheduling some meetings for next week, but mostly to deal with the other issues.”

While it’s just a meeting, yesterday’s tough talk from both sides made it feel like it would be a while before the two sides chatted again. Seeing them get together today can only be seen as a positive sign.

The NHLPA confirmed Friday’s gathering and also announced that both sides will continue to speak during the weekend.

With the trust being so seemingly fractured between the owners and players, baby steps like these are encouraging especially when they could just not talk at all instead.

Read more:

Fehr sounds off on NHL for canceling games

Daly calls canceled schedule “extremely disappointing”

Report: NHLPA working on new proposal