It is not just the players and he has been criticized for a number of years, long before this dispute.
Back when the NHL hired Gary Bettman away from the NBA, Orlando Magic GM Pat Williams wondered how Bettman would fare as the head of the hockey league.
"I gave Gary a hockey puck once, and he spent the rest of the day trying to open it," Williams is quoted as saying.
Sports Illustrated's Kostya Kennedy summed up the criticism when he wrote this a few years ago: "Bettman is a bottom-line commissioner. He's deeply concerned with generating revenue for his owner-employers, regardless of the cost to the product on the ice."
Or as former Sharks GM Dean Lombardi told Kennedy in that same column: "Of course it's a business but it's also a sport of passion, and we have to acknowledge that. The way this league has become all about selling, selling, selling has taken away some of the fire."
"It's a garage league," Mario Lemieux said five years ago.
Or this from Brett Hull: "The game sucks. It's boring. I would never pay to watch this."
The list of complaints is long.
The league expanded too fast and into many non-traditional hockey markets. There are too many teams and the season is too long. The games are boring because of the trap and clutching and grabbing. The low scoring defensive struggles are driving away fans and failing to attract new ones. Canada lost franchises in both Winnipeg and Quebec. The widening economic gap between big market teams and small market teams is growing and could signal a possible end for more Canadian franchises and some small market teams in the United States. Some say rules changes like moving the nets out from the end boards, eliminating the instigator rule and instituting the two-referee system have hurt the on ice product, not helped it.
Critics even criticize how Bettman handles criticism. They say he ignores facts and puts a positive spin on everything. Throw out a criticism of the game and Bettman will have an answer.
For example, low scoring games?
Bettman's response: "There's no magic about 8-1 games. The fact that 73 per cent of the time games are played within one or two goals or tied tells you that there's a level of excitement and commitment. And I'm not sure who on the politically correct police ever said that the number of goals you score translate into how exciting the game is. I don't buy into that."
It's the same approach he's been taking for years. A few years ago, one of Bettman's "the game is fine" speeches drew this response from Allan Maki of the Toronto Globe and Mail:
"In other words, hockey is fine. Things are good. You see clouds and the perfect analogy, Bettman sees only what he wants to see. It’s always a wonderful life in Bettman’s world. Present population: one."