Why should the players pay for the owner's poor business decisions and practices? It's not the players fault that the Rangers lost the most money in the league last season because of poor management decisions. It's not the players fault that the Devils, Islanders and Penguins have piss poor arena leases? The management of the Blues came out and said they lost a lot of money and have no concern over it (this a team who finished 7th in the west, let Pavol Demetra walk, and are giving 3 players approxmately $30 million amongst them). Is it the players fault that the Ducks and Hurricanes are in piss poor hockey markets, where only great majorities are fair-weather fans (not just the Hurricanes, but the Panthers and Hornets have faced significant problems due to poor attendance). For some teams a 5% roll back on salaries is pretty signicant when it comes to saving money in the long run. It's the players who are making concessions trying to find a common ground, and Gary Bettman is the one sitting in the corner like a 5-year old holding his breath until he gets what he wants.
Major League Baseball was hemmoraging money. The Diamondbacks, coming off a World Series not long before, were not going to be able to make their salary payments, in fact Bud Selig came out and said that there were 3 or 4 teams who were not going to be able to do so. They were ready to contract 2 teams, something the NHL never entertained the thought of doing. This was all fixed through revenue sharing and a luxury tax. Now, only one team pay the luxury tax, and George Steinbrenner has so much money he doesn't even care. Revenue sharing creates an enviroment that all teams can trive in, thus creating a better product because the only teams who would still be in trouble with revenue sharing are the teams being run by imbiciles.
They may be making too much, they're also making less than any other sport. Less than the best athletes in football, baseball, basketball, soccer, nascar even the best golf and tennis players. Alexei Yashin didn't put a gun to anyone's head and said "Give me a $10 mill a year." Alexei Yashin can be greedy all he wants or other people want, someone gave him the money, and that was a terrible management decision.