The NHL has taken a lot of hits this year - many self-induced due to a lockout that cost 41% of the season and such jewel events as the Winter Classic and All-Star Game - but the league feels it wlll be back on solid ice with fans and marketers via a multi-media effort breaking this week that anticipates the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning April 30.

Manning tops all NFL players with $15M in annual endorsements via TV spots that seem to be constantly airing, but now Kevin Durant is challenging Manning, as well as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose, for the title of most-marketed player via deals that include Gatorade, Nike, Degree for Men, Sprint and Skullcandy.

Logistics, logistics, logistics. Amazon has it and will cement its position as major retail price setter because of it per a ResearchFarm report. The report predicts that Amazon will focus on logistics in the future and broaden its fulfillment center footprint. It will then lower its delivery costs and completed the transition towards making shipping a fixed cost.

The nation's largest supermarket chain will spend $1.5 million installing Ecotality's Blink car-charging stations at 125 stores in Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego. Kroger will install 225 stations in all, including 25 D.C. fast chargers. The grocery chain already has 60 Blink chargers in Oregon and Washington, as well as 14 in Texas. Blink customers sign up to use the service and access the chargers by swiping a card on the machine.

Gen C is the next consumer-culture powerhouse. It's the YouTube Generation, "a term we use to describe people who care deeply about creation, curation, connection and community," says Google in its Gen C report. "It's not an age group - it's an attitude and mindset." This group fills the digital space with photos, videos, memes and mash-ups. Google says Gen C sets the trends and determines what's going to be popular next.

According to a first-quarter study from Ace Metrix, casual-brands LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Applebee's and Red Lobster dominated this quarter's list of Ace Scores, taking the top 10 spots. The Mountain View, Calif.-based advertising research firm found that dinnerhouses had the highest Ace Scores due in large part to low price points, low calorie counts and fancy food shots.

About 75% of the workforce at troubled battery-car start-up Fisker Automotive has been laid off, including its entire communications staff and much of its marketing and engineering operations, a move forced by the firm's increasing weak financial situation and the mounting fears that without new investors or partners Fisker could be forced into bankruptcy, numerous sources have confirmed.

Target Corp. has launched a new line of home furnishings and expanded the amount of space dedicated to those products in its stores. The retailer hopes the increased focus will tie in with the spring season, a big selling period for the category. "If the housing market is recovering at the same time we are launching a new brand, that is great," said Stacia Andersen, head of merchandising for home at Target.

Blogger Ken Segall points out that naming an iPhone is complicated but tends to follow the number-plus-S model, noting that the press uses "iPhone 5S." "Most experts see a narrative in which Apple only produces a major upgrade every other year, and in between we get the 'S' model," with small improvements, notes Segall. "Whether that's Apple's intended message is unknown. But personally, I wish Apple never created a "4S."

A federal appeals court in Massachusetts reversed a lower court's decision to throw out a lawsuit by Aetna. The suit accused Pfizer of illegally promoting the off-label use of Neurontin. The First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court erred when it refused to allow Aetna to sue Pfizer over what it called a racketeering conspiracy to induce physicians to prescribe Neurontin for off-label uses like treating bipolar disorder.