As far as the players, I can't agree more. Fans have seemingly become more and more of a nuisance to them in the last decade. Maybe social media is to blame, and we have too much access, but whatever it is instead of shaking hands and talking to kids, more and more of the players seem to want to be protected from the masses instead of embracing them. That is what always made me prefer hockey to baseball and football, and now sadly that my be slipping away. Hopefully they make a genuine effort to reach out to fans, but we will have to see how everything plays out.
I also have a problem with how Bettman has been cast through all of this. He has helped expand the game, (as evidenced by players from 13 states including Florida and California on the Gold Medal US Junior Team). The league has never been more profitable. Other than fans in Atlanta, Hartford, and Quebec City home teams are still home teams. Some people will never be happy until every team has been removed from the league and only the original six remain, but for the rest of us there is a lot to root for.