January 4, 2013

Defenceman Chris Phillips is back in the Senators lineup after being sidelined by a concussion. ERROL MCGIHON/Ottawa Sun

OTTAWA - Day 111 of the NHL lockout might as well have been Day 1, as players are just as upset with the league's latest negotiating tactic as they were with the owners' initial, unreasonable proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement.

Maybe even more so.

The bone of contention, as it was in the beginning, is the distribution of hockey related revenues which last year reached $3.3 billion. Both sides had settled on how they would split up the pie and moved on to other issues -- seemingly so very close to ending the dispute -- when talks took a dramatic turn for the worse with the league's latest offer.