NEW YORK - The NHL might have a new proposal for the players' association when the sides return to the bargaining table.

No one will say if the talks Wednesday represent the last chance to save the hockey season, but time is clearly running out.

When the league does make its next offer, the proposal is expected to include a salary-cap structure similar to concepts the NHL talked about with the union last Thursday. But the players' association vows to never accept that as a solution.

For the fifth time in two weeks, the sides will meet without commissioner Gary Bettman and union chief Bob Goodenow.

Only Bill Daly, the NHL's chief legal officer, and outside counsel Bob Batterman were expected to represent the league, while NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin and attorney John McCambridge will take part for the players' association.

Trevor Linden, the players' association president, New Jersey Devils president and general manager Lou Lamoriello, and Harley Hotchkiss, the chairman of the NHL board of governors, were present for last week's meeting.

Today's session, set up through an e-mail exchange, was not expected to be in New York, where the last meeting was held, according to a source close to the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It will, however, be the first face-to-face talks since last Thursday, when the sides wrapped up a two-day meeting that started in Toronto. The NHL is still committed to getting a deal that provides a link between league revenues and player costs.

"We were very clear on Thursday that we would not be negotiating over (Daly's) proposed concepts," Saskin said this week.

The philosophical differences that existed between the league and the players on Sept. 16 - the first day of the lockout - are still there 4½ months later.

Linden, a Vancouver Canucks center, came up with the idea two weeks ago to hold meetings without Bettman and Goodenow. The hope was that it would spur open discussions and lead to a deal that would save the season from completely slipping away.

Through Tuesday, the 139th day of the lockout, 756 of the 1,230 regular-season games and this year's All-Star game had been lost.