As the summer skies finally fill the days and nights, let us turn to that most necessary element for summer fun – ice. In this case we speak of the NHL ice that long ago melted and the attempts to refreeze it at the bargaining table.

Owners locked out the players last year and the season was lost. Until the last 45 days, negotiations to reach a new collective bargaining agreement had been minimal and lurching at best.

The parties are now serious. The thought of losing another season is untenable. The structure for an agreement has been reached.

Each team will have a salary cap that will be flexible based on team revenues. There will be a team salary ceiling, probably in the $50 million range. Younger players, especially those just entering the league, will take a big hit with a cap on their salaries in the $400,000 range.

There probably will be a revenue sharing plan that will penalize teams for exceeding the cap, but that is iffy because it is the intent of most owners to make sure there is none of the NBA spending in excess of the cap that existed under the just-expired NBA deal.

The ice, however, remains thin. The owners’ desire to cut current salaries by 24 percent is a tough pill for the players to handle. The owners created the contracts and signed on the dotted line.

Now those same owners say “save us” from the havoc we have wrought. The players will answer that call, but the 24 percent figure may be too high.

Owners believe they have the players on the run. Maybe they do, but don’t push it or the players may be running right up your back. A major tenet of collective bargaining when things are going your way is stay firm, but don’t gloat.

The players are angry that their leaders agreed to a salary cap and even angrier they agreed to a massive cut in current salaries. If the current terms the owners seek were to go to a player vote, it would likely be turned down.

The owners believe the players have no choice. They have no income. They have overspent. They can’t pay for the extravagancies they bought on credit. Maybe they have, but it’s a very wrong approach.

The owners as much as the players’ association must present a new agreement that both sides can say was done to protect the future of the game and fairly compensate the people off whom the game makes money – the players.

I am hearing way too much pounding of the chest from the ownership side, the clamor of generals who declare victory while dancing around the fire that’s melting the ice under their own feet.

The players will not be “beaten.” They will agree to a fair deal. Players have discussed their own league. The have discussed joining the hatchling World Hockey League. They have tested the European ice and found it less than what they desire but livable.

The day long passed when these negotiations were owners vs. players. This is about a joint effort to find a common ground to save the NHL. Viewed otherwise by either side is a prescription for a watery meltdown.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.