On Monday, just a day after the National Hockey League lockout concluded, Andrew Ference was an NHL player again. The Bruins defenseman and seven teammates hit the ice at Boston University’s Agganis Arena to begin the process of regaining their touch and rhythm in preparation for training camp.

Just four days earlier, Ference worried about whether a season would take place at all. Ference and nine other NHL players were at New York’s Sofitel Hotel. Earlier that Thursday, negotiations took place two blocks away at the NHL’s midtown headquarters on Sixth Avenue. They did not go well.