At the conclusion of a week where the sides have not met Gary Bettman is now requesting that the parties take a two week break from negotiating.  From TSN.ca:

Commissioner Gary Bettman has suggested placing a two-week moratorium on stalled collective bargaining negotiations, multiple sources told The Canadian Press on Thursday night. The offer came after Bettman received a phone call from Donald Fehr on Wednesday in which the NHLPA executive director said he didn’t know how the sides could proceed from their current stalemate.

Rather than providing an immediate answer, Fehr told Bettman he would need to bounce the idea off his membership before responding. The union has repeatedly taken the position that it would prefer to meet rather than having breaks during the labour dispute — and suggested again Thursday it will continue to favour that position.

NHLPA special counsel, and Don’s brother, Steve Fehr has since made statements to the effect that the parties should be meeting.

“We believe that it is more likely that we will make progress if we meet than if we don’t,” NHLPA special counsel Steve Fehr said in a statement. “So we are ready to meet. If indeed they do not want to meet, it will be at least the third time in the last three months that they have shut down the dialogue, saying they will not meet unless the players meet their preconditions.

“What does that tell you about their interest in resolving this?”

You can read the rest of the TSN article HERE.

Here’s the Ottawa Citizen article about the same thing.