I believe that there is a deal and the owners are not ready to accept it. The owners plan throughout the hole prosses was to cancel as many games as possible. Why do i say this while its simple if the NHL plays at least 60 games they get 100% of the money from there sponsers 41 games or less is 50% that means if the NHL plays 42 games then the NHL gets 75% and the owners only have to pay the players for only 42 games. So look for the deal to be accepted by friday december friday 12/21/2012. Training camp to start saturday 12/29/2012 and the season will start on 1/11/2013 there will be no presean games. There is no way that the season is lost because of 2 issues such as length of players contract and length of CBA. you don't come so close to have it fall apart.
Its called the waiting game