Peter Laviolette passes the time during NHL labor dispute

The NHL had another fruitless day of labor negotiations Thursday, meaning Peter Laviolette will continue coaching a youth hockey team.

Laviolette, 47, misses coaching the Flyers, but the lockout has given him more time to spend with his wife and three children - and an opportunity to watch some of the team's minor-league prospects.

Oh, and he has become an assistant for his 14-year-old son's hockey team.

"I get to do a lot of things I can't normally do during the season," Laviolette said Thursday, which was scheduled to be the night the Flyers opened the season by hosting the Boston Bruins. "Between both of my boys' games, I'm at a rink almost every night, and I'm at my daughter's soccer games. It's good."

Laviolette and some of the Flyers' brass will be in Glens Falls, N.Y., Saturday for the Adirondack Phantoms' AHL opener.

He plans to attend other Phantoms games, along with some practices and games involving the Flyers' ECHL affiliate in Trenton.

"You can gain more by watching them play than you can in training camp," he said. "It's great to keep a pulse on our guys."

Before this season, the NHL's last lockout was in 2004-05. When hockey returned the next year, Laviolette's Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup.

Laviolette said there wasn't any magic coaching formula developed during the lockout that led to the title. Instead, it was a late surge the Hurricanes displayed the season before the lockout, when Laviolette took the job on Dec. 15, 2003.

"There was a transition period," he said, "but I really liked the way we played at the end of the year - and that set the foundation" when the lockout ended.

In addition to scouting, Laviolette will be helping the Flyers' public-relations department by making area appearances during the lockout.

No progress. Representatives for the NHL and the players' union met in New York on Thursday and, once again, did not make any progress toward a new collective-bargaining agreement.

The group did not talk about the core economic issues. Instead, only secondary issues, such as free agency and drug testing, were discussed.

Bill Daly, the NHL's deputy commissioner, maintained that if the main economic differences were resolved, "we could go back and solve the remaining issues in six hours."

No new meetings are scheduled.

"Until we're tackling the major issues, I'm not sure what the urgency is to meet on a 24/7 basis," Daly told reporters.

About a month ago, the NHL made a proposal on hockey-related revenue. The NHLPA has not countered that proposal.

Daly said that in hindsight, "maybe the fault lies in the fact that we didn't start negotiations until June 29. Again, that goes back to the level of urgency with the players' association and not being prepared to have those discussions."