So there was Gary Bettman at the podium at a midtown Manhattan hotel following the Board of Governors’ ratification of the CBA, professing his profound admiration for the strength and stability the NHL Players’ Association had developed under Don Fehr’s leadership.

This would not have been quite so comical if the canceler-in-chief and appointed operatives had not invested a majority of their energy during the lockout to attempting to undermine Fehr’s leadership in a strategy of divide-and-conquer that ultimately failed.

For the most part, it was Bettman as Mark McGwire — and on quite the appropriate day at that — not there to talk about the past. There was a standard apology to the customers accompanied by defense of his role in Owners’ Lockout III as part of the commissioner’s job description of having “to make tough decisions that disappoint and sometimes anger players and fans.”

It’s worth noting that on Tuesday Fehr opened the first of a series of informational conference calls with agents by saying, “I believed at the start that this was an unnecessary lockout and that’s what I believe now.”

The players must still ratify the CBA before the schedule is announced and before the league launches what Bettman implied would be an aggressive and even innovative program to retain the fan base.

Union ratification that will be completed Saturday would trigger the opening of training camps Sunday, which would precede the opening of a 48-game season on Jan. 19.

An effective CBA is a seamless weave. This is not that. This one is a patchwork of pet projects, incongruent pieces jammed together to produce a document filled with contradictions and imperfections.

Query: Which owners of big market Stanley Cup contenders flex their economic muscle by authorizing deadline trades for players on pricey contracts destined for summer compliance buyouts, thus immediately skewing — that’s with a “k” — the competition?

Bettman offered praise for the players on the negotiating committee, who, in his words, “Fought hard for what they believed in and represented their fellow players extraordinarily well.”

More is the pity that Bettman invested more time in play-acting and walking out on the players than he did in communicating with the athletes, who always were masters of their own domain despite the attempts of league toadies and acolytes to paint them as mindless followers.

The Post has learned that Bettman’s ultimate willingness to listen on the final day of the lockout was the key to ending the stalemate.

Sources report it was a one-hour meeting last Saturday attended by only Bettman, NHL attorney Bob Batterman and the Coyotes’ universally respected Shane Doan that broke the logjam over the critical issue regarding the 2013-14 cap number.

Doan, who left money on the table as a free agent this summer to remain in Phoenix, explained that the league’s proposed $62.5M — increased at that point from the original $60M — would disrupt the lives of players and their families who would be forced to move because of trades and buyouts that would not otherwise take place under the union’s more forgiving $64.3M transition number.

The Coyotes’ winger convinced Bettman and Batterman that the issue wasn’t about financial gain for the players, but on the contrary, for players would inevitably suffer greater escrow loss via a higher cap. It was, Doan said, about family life.

Suitably impressed, the NHL power brokers agreed to meet the NHLPA’s number and by doing so resolved one of the few make-or-break issues that remained between the parties.

Not there to talk about the past, it was Bettman as McGwire, but most certainly not Bettman as Richard Nixon in proclaiming that he has every intention of staying on the job into the distant future.

Certain media people, it appears, will have Bettman to kick around for a while.

larry.brooks@nypost.com