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NHL says progress being made, but a lot of work left to doFriday, August 31, 2007 Progress is being made, but there is a lot of work to be done. That was the league's take after the NHL and NHLPA wrapped up another long meeting in Toronto on Friday. "We continued our discussions on financial and accounting issues, and while we are making progress, we still have a lot of work to do," NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly said in a statement Friday night. "The parties have agreed to continue the process with a series of meetings next week, at which time we hope to begin discussing a myriad of other CBA issues." NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin offered this take on the talks in a statement released shortly after Daly's: "Earlier this evening we concluded three days of small group meetings. Once again a wide range of economic and systemic concepts were discussed. The parties have agreed to continue meeting next week." Friday's meeting in Toronto began at 8 a.m. ET and wrapped up at about 8:30 p.m. Over the past three days the two sides met for about 34 hours. The sides have now met 19 times since commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the season on February 16. While the continuing talks are a signal that progress is being made, there appears to be a long way to go before a new CBA is finalized. Although there has been a lot of optimism that a deal could be imminent, many on both sides of the fence are trying to not buy into the hype. "I'm a little more cautious about all the positive talk that we're hearing in the last two weeks," Buffalo Sabres forward Daniel Briere told the Canadian Press. "We got burned a couple of times during the winter with this kind of talk, when we thought we had a deal but then got told it wasn't even close. I'm following it closely for sure, but I'm keeping an even keel. "When they tell me everything is absolutely done and finalized and we're playing hockey, that's when I'll be excited."
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