NHL and NHLPA brass, including Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr, held substantive, in-person meetings Tuesday and Wednesday, less than a week after the Winter Classic got the ax.

The sides reportedly plan to do so again today.

The sides have met before, but this is the first time to believe they are making actual progress towards a deal. Three reasons:

• The discussions have been held in secret locations, and post-gathering press releases have provided no insight into the topics covered in those meetings.
• Two straight days of talks have been held with plans for a third, and no major indignity has caused one side to leave the table and blame the other for the impasse.
• The divisive core issues of revenue sharing, the make-whole provision and the league-union revenue split have reportedly been discussed.