At Sportsnet, Mark Spector writes about how Gary Bettman and the owners may be looking to be greedy and that is why they are dragging out the lockout.

Spector writes that most league executives that he has spoken with only want Bettman to get to 50/50 and eliminate the back diving contracts. Other than that the contract details don’t mean much to them.

Pierre LeBrun writes at ESPN.com that the owners just want to deal with contract issues that deal with cap circumvention.

Adam Rotter: Part of me thinks that the NHL does have their date in mind and they are just stringing this along to see if they can get the players to cave on some issues they would like, but wouldn’t kill the season over. The owners want the 50/50 split and with the players basically there, the owners are now trying to see if they can throw some contract issues on top of it as gravy. Soon the owners will start to give on some of their contract demands, progress will be made and we will be closer to hockey being played.