NHL IS SKATING ON THIN ICE IN L.A.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

When Gary Bettman says the NHL never has been healthier it makes us think the only thing really growing is his nose.

Maybe the spin-happy commissioner simply can't face the truth: The league may have expanded to 30 teams and the cavernous new buildings may be pumping up the attendance figures but professional hockey continues to fly below the general public's radar in the second-largest television market in the land.

Yes, hockey in L.A. is N.D. (Not Dandy).

It pains our puck-shaped heart to say this, but the television sitcom debut Wednesday of Bette Midler generated more buzz around town than the Kings' 2000-20001 home debut.

Forget that the Kings' opponent Wednesday was not your requisite neutral zone-trapping clone, the St. Louis Blues having put together the NHL's best regular-season record last year.

Never mind that Kings forward Luc Robitaille is aging as marvelously as the Divine Miss ``M'', collecting nine points in the first four games of his 15th season.

So what if a lefty brought to L.A. this year for his offense made his successful Southland debut. Defenseman Mathieu Schneider bears more than a passing resemblance to the Dodgers' Shawn Green and he is off to a similarly strong start in 2000 (the hope here is he has a lot more left at the finish).

Schneider scored a power-play goal and assisted on two others Wednesday as the Kings and Blues skated to a 4-4 tie to improve to 2-1-1. If Angelenos were aware they had a winning team in their midst, they had a funny way of showing it.

On the eve of the Kings' home opener, 1,000 tickets remained unclaimed (they must have been snatched up at the last minute as the game was announced as a sellout). Sure, Bette beckoned and there was a debate of some importance taking place in North Carolina, too.

But what about the ongoing debate that raged Wednesday at the Staples Center as to who is the league's preeminent defenseman, the Blues' Chris Pronger or the Kings' Rob Blake?

As far as we can see, one issue distinguishes the two very worthy candidates. It's not a physical thing, but rather, a fiscal thing.

Each player is in the final year of his contract; Pronger, adopting the strategy of Seattle infielder Alex Rodriguez, has deferred all talk of an extension until after the season.

Blake, adopting the strategy of his one-time neighbor Mike Piazza, balked last month at a take-it-or-leave-it extension that would have upped his pay $2.3 million a year - a tidy 44 percent increase - for three years.

The 11th-year veteran was so insulted by the terms of his extension and the manner in which it was delivered, he ripped the captain's ``C'' right off his chest. Blake later re-considered, but the damage (and we're not just talking about his jersey) already had been done.

The edge in ofce comportment clearly goes to Pronger.

Don't misunderstand: In Blake we trust. But his behavior in regards to his contract was not becoming of a leader, especially not a would-be chief commander of a game that right now is having a hard time cracking the front pages of the sports section or the first minute of a sportscast unless one of its own is on trial, as ex-King Marty McSorley sadly was last week for assault with a hockey stick.

The NHL has a shiner and it isn't going to disappear just because Bettman keeps caking on the concealer. Nor does it help the healing when some of the league's most skilled players act as though they are the injured ones instead of the game itself.

Which brings us to Jozef Stumpel, the Kings' Slovakian center who we can now safely say has assimilated to L.A. life. Like the city's public transportation workers and commercial actors, Stumpel is currently not working.

A restricted free agent, Stumpel was insulted by the $500,000 pay raise the Kings offered him even though a hernia limited him to only 57 games last year, the lowest total in his injury-marred, three-year tenure with the team.

Stumpel might be standing on principle, but he should know the ice all around him is getting very mushy. A Zamboni machine isn't the answer, unless it can knock some sense into the league's front office and its frontline players. The league needs more scoring less than it does more perspective.