Two days of unbridled optimism followed by catastrophe.

Just as it looked like the NHL and the NHLPA were making major traction, to the point that people were eagerly anticipating puck drop, everything went to hell, coincidentally when the players wanted to bring Donald Fehr back to close the deal. Now everything's off the table and Gary Bettman is fuming.

"What you're witnessing is very tough bargaining," Bettman said in a press conference after Thursday night's talks. "We kept giving and giving and giving. We made five different proposals. We did something completely unorthodox—we kept negotiating against ourselves."

If Bettman is upset that the owners are negotiating against themselves, he has no one to blame but himself. The fact that the NHL tabled such a ridiculous proposal in the summer gave them no choice. The owners were going to have to give up plenty of the outlandish terms they initially wanted in order to get the terms they realistically could expect (e.g., a 50-50 split of HRR).

But that isn't the usual give-and-take that happens in negotiations. Usually, you give the other side something important in order to get something important for yourself.

In the last round of CBA negotiations, the ones that ultimately cost the 2004-05 season, the players were forced to take on a salary cap and were generally hammered by the owners. All was not bad, however. During negotiations they won in other areas, such as liberalized free agency. Give-and-take.

During these negotiations there has been less give-and-take. It's more like give, give, give. But despite what Bettman claims, it isn't the owners that are giving.

After hockey fans became briefly optimistic over the owners' surprise proposal, the air was let totally out of the balloon once it was made clear that it wasn't an invitation for negotiation, it was an ultimatum.

We know it wasn't an offer to negotiate because the NHLPA gave three different counter-offers, all of which were flat out rejected. It was basically a Choose Your Own Adventure proposal.

Here's some background information if you are too old and never had the opportunity to read a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Or if you are too young, which would mean they have stopped making them. That would be a true injustice. 

Choose Your Own Adventure books were great. You read a story until the main character had a crucial decision to make. At that point you became the protagonist and you got to choose what adventure to lead. You skipped to a certain page based on the path you chose. Sometimes your decision would lead to a happy ending, while other times it would result in you being eaten by a pride of lions. It wasn't for the faint of heart. Luckily, if you kept your finger on the "decision page" you could easily go back and justify to yourself that you meant to pick "don't open the creepy cellar door". Other times you died either way. It was fun!

It's not well known, but there is actually a Choose Your Own Adventure: CBA Negotiations book. It's your chance to get into the thick of the negotiations and help save the NHL season. Watch out for traps!