Bettman is unpopular because of the same reason all sports commissioners are: his job is not to protect the game or make it better - his job is to make money for the owners. Full stop. To that end, he will be the face of the decisions taken in that direction, whether they are:
1) Refusing to allow players to go to Olympics
2) Work stoppages
3) Dicey expansion decisions to generate fees
The only reason he's more hated than other commissioners is that hockey fans have one thing they care about more than anything; NBA/NFL split some amount of time between college and pro and each other's sports, MLB is lol. There's no sport in the world with a fan base that combines the particular levels of size and passion that hockey does.
I'd like to give a go at creating the regular season thread. I'll handle it tonight if no one minds and I can get an appropriate blessing