In less than a week, the National Hockey League would have declared the 2012-13 season nonexistent. That deadline proved too dangerous to approach.

Early Sunday morning, the NHL and the NHL Players Association declared the 113-day lockout over. The sides, which had been meeting in New York, announced they had come to a preliminary settlement on a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement. The NHL would have canceled the season Friday had an agreement not been in place.