NEW YORK (AP) – The NHL and the league’s players association moved no closer to a collective bargaining agreement during a five-hour meeting Tuesday. In fact, the sides even took a slight detour.

During the third negotiating session in six weeks, the NHLPA formally rejected six proposed concepts put forth by the league that were discussed in the previous two meetings this summer.

Once that happened, talks shifted to a general discussion of league and specific team economics and operations.

“Today can be more fairly characterized as a side step in the process,” NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin said after a meeting in New Jersey near Newark Airport. “We’ll have further discussions so that hopefully we can find areas where we are in agreement and build from there.”

The next talks will take place over two days next week in Ottawa and resume Aug. 30 and Sept. 1 in Montreal, which will host World Cup of Hockey games on those nights.

The upcoming two-week tournament, a joint venture between the NHL and the NHLPA, closes with the championship game in Toronto on Sept. 14. The current contract between the league and its players expires the next day.

“We told the players association that we would make ourselves available every day between now and the end of the collective bargaining agreement to try to get this resolved,” said Bill Daly, the NHL’s chief legal officer.

Saskin also expressed the union’s willingness to have regular meetings before the end of the contract. If a new deal isn’t in place by Sept. 15, a lockout is expected to be imposed.

As each fruitless meeting wraps up, a hockey shutdown becomes more likely.

“No proposals were discussed or exchanged,” Saskin said. “We had dialogue on both team-specific and industry issues and will continue the dialogue in our next meeting.

“I would not characterize today’s meeting as having made any progress in any direction.”

AP-ES-08-17-04 1928EDT