Dan Winnik was surprised by the NHL's harsh reaction to the union's latest proposal. The NHL was expecting the union to give them a yes or no response to three issues the league considers essential points. Those key issues are: five-year player contract limits, the length of the CBA agreement, and transition issues between the old and new CBA. Rather than provide them with a yes or no response to those issues, the union came back with a counterproposal and the NHL responded by rejecting it and pulling all the compromises they've made over the past week off the table. "They asked us to address their three main issues," said Winnik. "And thatƒ?Ts what we thought we were doing today. We didn't know by us not completely agreeing to what they want was thatƒ?Ts it. I should say we didn't think it would lead to that." Winnik described what happened last night as "insane."