Just looked at the numbers.. Since Crosby got hurt January 18th til he returned March 4th.


Malkin had 15G 22A 37Points 22 Games.


And from Crosby's Injury til end of season.

24G 30A 54P 35G

The Swedish centre ended a five-month wait Thursday by accepting the Canucks offer of US$10-million for one year. Pro-rated for the rest of the season, he'll earn around US$5 million

The Kings, like many other NHL teams, are offering deep discounts in an attempt to sell tickets. But their latest promotion could make some previous ticket holders very unhappy.

The Kings announced they will hold a 36-hour sale in which all tickets for their six January home games, including those seats available in the lower bowl, will be on sale for $11.50 each. The sale will begin Friday at 11:50 a.m. (their flagship radio station is 1150 KTLK) and will end at midnight next Saturday.

If you're a season-ticket holder or already bought tickets at original (high) prices and find out that the people sitting next to you paid only $11.50, wouldn't you be slightly peeved?

Tickets can be purchased at LAKings.com, by calling 1-888-KINGS-LA, at the Staples Center box office and at Ticketmaster outlets. The minimum purchase is two tickets and the maximum is eight. No refunds or exchanges will be possible.

Any tickets on the 300 level that aren't sold during that 36-hour period will be sold for $11.50 through the end of January.

-- Helene Elliott LA TIMES

...the league is overexpanded.

Elsewhere, there is the usual mix of success stories and tales of woe in the NHL.

Everything is rosy in Canada, where all six teams are selling out on a regular basis, which, of course, raises the question: Why aren't there more teams north of the border?

The Rangers and the Penguins are playing to capacity crowds in the East, and the Penguins have a waiting list of 2,000 fans hoping to find a seat when Pittsburgh finally gets its new arena in 2010.

Minnesota is playing to capacity, San Jose sells out most games and Detroit has rebounded after the team adjusted its ticket prices to match the sluggish economy. The Red Wings have sold out four of their first five home games.

That's the good news.

In Atlanta, they have experienced the three smallest crowds of the past four seasons. Attendance has dropped 15.7 per cent to 13,384.

The Islanders are on life support as owner Charles Wang tries to get a new arena to replace the Nassau Mausoleum, which is the oldest and smallest building in the NHL. The latest rumbling is that a frustrated Wang would be willing to sell to the right bidder or, if he gets desperate, to Jim Balsillie.

The Lightning and Devils are down, and Columbus, which sold out every game in the 2001-02 season, had only 10,424 fans attend a Monday night game against Anaheim. That was the smallest crowd for the Blue Jackets in the history of Nationwide Arena.
Cheaper seats have helped Dallas turn things around, but attendance has dropped considerably in Colorado, where the Avalanche once sold out 487 consecutive games. That streak is a memory.

Attendance is down 6 per cent in Los Angeles, where the Staples Centre is filled to 83.4 per cent of capacity. But my spies there tell me that - as is the case in many other arenas - the nightly attendance figures are inflated.

The only good news when you look at the struggling franchises in Long Island, Nashville, Florida, Atlanta and Columbus is that there is no shortage of teams that would look good down the line in Winnipeg, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo or Quebec City.

Stay tuned....my $$ is on retraction....and the league on the whole will start to bleed red ink by this off season. The cap will remain as is.