FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2012 file photo, National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces the NHL Winter Classic hockey game at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. The NHL has canceled the 2013 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium. The signature event between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs, is the latest casualty from the labor dispute that has put the season on hold, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Friday, Nov. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2012 file photo, National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces the NHL Winter Classic hockey game at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. The NHL has canceled the 2013 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium. The signature event between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs, is the latest casualty from the labor dispute that has put the season on hold, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Friday, Nov. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2012, file photo, a view from inside a hockey net shows Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., after the announcement of the NHL Winter Classic hockey game. The NHL has canceled the 2013 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium. The signature event between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs, is the latest casualty from the labor dispute that has put the season on hold, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Friday, Nov. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? The NHL and the players' association returned to the bargaining table Thursday, the third straight day the sides have met in an effort to end the lockout.
The work stoppage reached its 54th day, and this week is considered critical for the hockey season to be saved. The lockout is threatening to force the second cancellation of an NHL season in seven years.
Even if an agreement is reached soon, it isn't clear if any of this season's games that have been called off through Nov. 30 can be rescheduled. The NHL, however, has said a full 82-game season won't be played.
Owners and players already have bargained for about 13 hours over two days this week at an undisclosed site in New York. Little information about the talks has been disclosed by either side.
Thursday afternoon's discussions marked the fourth time in six days that face-to-face negotiations have taken place after both sides rejected proposals Oct. 18. The lockout, which began Sept. 16 after the collective bargaining agreement expired, has forced the cancellation of 327 regular-season games, including the New Year's Day Winter Classic in Michigan.
A second consecutive day of marathon negotiations took place Wednesday, when the sides spent more than five hours discussing the most contentious issues. Coupled with the more than seven hours they spent negotiating Tuesday, owners and players have been together about 13 hours.
"We do not intend to comment on the substance or subject matter," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement.
NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said the parties met to "discuss many of the key issues," but did not elaborate.
Those issues include revenue sharing between teams and the "make-whole" provision, which involves the payment of player contracts that are already in effect. There is still much to be done to work out the differences to reach a deal that will allow the already delayed and shortened season to begin.
Along with a handful of team owners, eight players attended Wednesday's talks, five fewer than Tuesday. Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and others left New York to try to avoid the impending snowstorm that hit the area, the union said.
In October, the players' association responded to an NHL offer with three of its own, but all of those were quickly dismissed by the league. That led to nearly three weeks without face-to-face discussions, although the parties kept in regular contact by phone.
Both sides have made proposals that included a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenues. The NHL has moved toward the players' side in the "make-whole" provision and whose share of the economic pie that money will come from.
Other core economic issues ? mainly the split of hockey-related revenue ? along with contract lengths, arbitration and free agency also must be agreed upon.
The union accepted a salary cap in the previous labor pact, which wasn't reached until after the entire 2004-05 season was canceled because of a lockout. The union doesn't want to absorb the majority of concessions this time after the NHL had record revenue that exceeded $3 billion last season.
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