It was an abrupt ending, replacing a day and night of growing optimism with an early morning of sobering realism. After almost nine hours of hard negotiation at a Midtown Manhattan hotel that lasted until 12:45 a.m. Thursday, the N.H.L. and the players' association gave reporters curt, noncommittal statements that indicated the two sides still have significant differences.
"We had a series of candid discussions tonight and we plan on meeting tomorrow," Winnipeg defenseman Ron Hainsey said and departed. He took no questions. It turned out to be the union's only statement.
Other players present for the talks, including Rangers forward Brad Richards and Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller, also left without comment. Donald Fehr, the executive director of the players' association, departed via elevator.
"You need different jobs," Fehr told reporters, who had been camped out for almost 12 hours to cover the talks, as he left.
About 45 minutes later, Bill Daly, the league's deputy commissioner, addressed reporters but did not take questions.
"We had a good, candid dialogue, a lot of issues," Daly said. "There continue to be some critical open issues between the two parties. We understand they should be getting back to us tomorrow on some of those issues."
A union spokesman, Andrew Wolfe, said that the players would meet internally Thursday before noon, but no time was scheduled to meet with the owners.
The sudden end tempered the hopefulness that had prevailed throughout the day Wednesday, when it seemed that a settlement to save the N.H.L. season was within reach and the owners and the players' association exchanged proposals.
Daly and six owners shuttled back and forth hurriedly between league conference rooms and those of the union well into the evening, a sense of urgent momentum suffusing the talks for a second straight day after 11 weeks that had produced mainly stalemate and rancor.
Among the league negotiators conferring with the union were Jeremy Jacobs, the hard-line owner of the Boston Bruins; Ronald Burkle, the moderate co-owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins; and Jeff Vinik, the moderate owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
As the talks ground late into the night, only three owners remained on the league side, and the original cast of players was reduced from about a dozen to roughly half that number.
Neither side was offering specifics on the proposals or what progress had been made. But the apparent intensity of the negotiating suggested that the two sides had gotten down to the hard business of hammering out a settlement.
Reports emerged afterward indicating that tensions had been high at times during the long day and night of talks. Jacobs and Miller, one of the more militant members of the players' union, reportedly both lost their tempers during an angry exchange.
Earlier Wednesday, the mood had been far lighter.
Commissioner Gary Bettman and club officials attended a meeting of the N.H.L. Board of Governors and offered encouraging signs that the long-deadlocked talks were warming up in the 81st day of the lockout.
"We are pleased with the process that is ongoing, and out of respect for that process, I don't have anything else to say, and I'm not going to take any questions," Bettman said in a brief statement to reporters. "See you later."
While union officials offered no comment throughout the day, club officials leaving the governors' meeting also sounded a note of optimism in similarly brief remarks.
Lou Lamoriello, the Devils' president and general manager, said: "I'm encouraged. I've always been hopeful of having a season till we have one. But right now, we have to leave it in the hands of the people who are talking."
The hopeful tone was set Tuesday, when 6 owners and 18 players met at the hotel for eight hours without Bettman and Fehr. Four of the six owners were new to the talks, changing the composition of the league's negotiating team.
According to participants, Burkle, one of the owners new to the talks, and his star player Sidney Crosby helped the two sides find common ground.
When the talks ended at midnight Tuesday, Steve Fehr, the union's special counsel, said, "I'd say it might be the best day we've had."
He and Daly stood alongside each other, the first time the union and league had given a joint statement since the lockout began on Sept. 15.
By Wednesday evening, fans and reporters who had been discussing the season's possible cancellation were instead focused on when training camps would open if a deal was struck by Friday, and whether a regular season of 56 or 60 games would open before, or just after, Christmas.
But the abrupt break in negotiations early Thursday served as a reminder that it is not a quick and simple matter to solve an N.H.L. lockout.
The 2004-5 lockout, which wiped out a season, was not settled until the two sides held 10 consecutive days of talks in July, capped by an all-night session at the league office.
The 1994-95 lockout was settled after 11 straight days of bargaining.
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