Early Tuesday morning lockout update: A new deadline

Good morning.

The players and the owners negotiated all day yesterday, and do not have a deal.

However, progress has apparently been made.

The hard deadline of February 28, by which a deal had to be made or else there would be games canceled, has turned out to be not so firm a deadline after all.

Instead, the owners have said there is a new deadline of March 1, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, by which a deal has to be made or else games will be canceled.

My guess is that no deal is reached today, despite negotiating all day, but the deadline is moved to tomorrow.

The vibe from those covering the negotiations seems to be that there is momentum, and a sense that a deal could be reached that would keep the full season intact and allow things to resume.

There will be more updates as today progresses, of course. Let’s cross our fingers that a deal gets done.