EASTERN CONFERENCE CAPSULES

* In predicted order of finish

1. NEW JERSEY

Coach: Larry Robinson, first full season.

1999-2000: 45-29-8-5, 103 points.

Who’s new: Left wing Jim McKenzie (free agent), right wing Ed Ward (trade with Ducks).

Outlook: The Devils won the Stanley Cup thanks, in part, to Robinson’s gentle hand after he took over for the fired Robbie Ftorek in the season’s final month. On a less experienced team Robinson might have trouble duplicating the feat, but the Devils are loaded with veteran role players. If goalie Martin Brodeur isn’t the league’s best, then he’s a close second behind Buffalo’s Dominik Hasek. Brodeur led the league with 43 victories last season. Defenseman Scott Stevens strikes terror in the hearts of forwards league-wide. Keep your head up at all times, fellas. Left wing Patrik Elias (35 goals, 72 points) and rookie of the year Scott Gomez (19 goals, 70 points) give the Devils good balance up front. There’s a great deal to like here.

2. TORONTO

Coach: Pat Quinn, third season.

1999-2000: 45-30-7-3, 100 points.

Who’s new: Left wings Gary Roberts and Shayne Corson (free agents) and defenseman Dave Manson (free agent).

Outlook: Goalie Curtis Joseph matched his career high with 36 victories last season. Center Mats Sundin led the Maple Leafs for the sixth consecutive season, scoring 32 goals and 73 points. The names get a little less familiar after Joseph and Sundin, but the Maple Leafs’ speed and depth gives them a rare European look in the bruising Eastern Conference. No question, Toronto lacked toughness last season and it showed in the playoffs. The Maple Leafs advanced only to the second round, losing to the Devils in six games. But the addition of gritty veterans Corson, Manson and Roberts should help in that area. Keep an eye on reliable defenseman Tomas Kaberle, who is poised for a breakout season.

3. PHILADELPHIA

Coach: Craig Ramsay, first full season.

1999-2000: 45-25-12-3, 105 points.

Who’s new: Left wing Paul Ranheim (trade with Carolina), left wing Kevin Stevens and defenseman Michal Sykora (free agents).

Outlook: ABC hasn’t added “The Flyers” to its lineup of afternoon soap operas, it merely seems that way. The Eric Lindros story line has provided a year’s worth of plot twists and turns. This team doesn’t need a coach, it needs a shrink. It also needs a new general manager. In any other town, Bob Clarke would have worn out his welcome long ago. But neither the good citizens of Philadelphia nor team chairman Ed Snider will cast off Clarke, a hero of the Flyers’ Stanley Cup champion teams of the mid-1970s. So Clarke wins his personality conflict with unsigned free agent Lindros, leaving the team weaker. Lindros’ fate isn’t certain. He is still recovering from post-concussion syndrome and has been told to rest until after Jan. 1.

4. BUFFALO

Coach: Lindy Ruff, fourth season.

1999-2000: 35-36-11-4, 85 points.

Who’s new: Left wing Dave Andreychuk (free agent).

Outlook: Any team with a healthy Dominik Hasek in goal must be considered a contender. (See: Sabres, 1998-99). Hasek planned to be retired and living in his native Czech Republic by now, but a groin injury that sidelined him for all but 35 games last season forced him to change his mind. Martin Biron (19-18-2 last season) will have to wait until at least the end of this season to take Hasek’s spot. The Sabres also have Satan on their side. That’s Miroslav Satan, a crafty winger who had a team-leading 33 goals last season. Andreychuk, who played his first 11 seasons in Buffalo, signed as a free agent, but is at the end of his career. There also are questions about how much longer center Doug Gilmour, 37, can be an effective NHL player.

5. WASHINGTON

Coach: Ron Wilson, fourth season.

1999-2000: 44-26-12-2, 102 points.

Who’s new: Defenseman Sylvain Cote (free agent).

Outlook: Hard to imagine the Capitals challenging for the Stanley Cup this season. But as Wilson showed when they reached the finals in 1997-98, anything is possible if he begs, pleads, tricks and cajoles his players into reaching new heights. Heck, he turned tough guy Chris Simon into a goal-scorer last season. Simon led the Capitals with 29 goals, 10 more than he scored in the previous three seasons combined. Washington won the Southeast Division title, but bowed out of the playoffs in the first round. Bad news for the Capitals is that is all-star goalie Olaf Kolzig will be sidelined at the start of the season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. Veteran center Adam Oates led the NHL with a 57% face-off success rate. He also had a team-leading 71 points, including 56 assists last season.

6. N.Y. RANGERS

Coach: Ron Low, first season.

1999-2000: 29-41-12-3, 73 points.

Who’s new: Center Mark Messier (free agent), team President Glen Sather, Low.

Outlook: New Yorkers are dreaming if they think “Mess” is going to win the Rangers the Cup again. This isn’t 1993-94 and the Rangers don’t have a prayer of duplicating Messier’s Stanley Cup heroics. He’s 39, after all. However, the Rangers will be competitive again after missing the playoffs three consecutive seasons. Sather worked miracles in Edmonton after the money ran out and the dynasty of the 1980s dried up. The all-Czech Republic line of Jan Hlavac, Petr Nedved and Radek Dvorak is a pleasure to watch. Center Mike York led all rookies last season with 26 goals. Messier will be the star attraction. Whether he can still be effective remains to be seen.

7. FLORIDA

Coach: Terry Murray, third season.

1999-2000: 43-33-6-6, 98 points.

Who’s new: Center Igor Larionov (free agent), center Olli Jokinen and goalie Roberto Luongo (trade with Islanders).

Outlook: If not for flashy winger Pavel Bure the Panthers would simply be a more expensive version of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bure led the Panthers last season with 58 goals (tops in the NHL) and 94 points (second behind Pittsburgh’s Jaromir Jagr, who had 96). Center Rob Niedermayer and left wing Ray Whitney, in particular, are worth keeping an eye on this season. Whitney had a breakout season with 29 goals and 71 points in 1999-2000. Larionov, 39, signed a two-year deal worth $3.8 million, but is he worth it? He is a veteran, but managed only nine goals and 47 points with Detroit last season. Of course, all he has to do is pass the puck to Bure and watch the results with the rest of us.

8. PITTSBURGH

Coach: Ivan Hlinka, first season.

1999-2000: 37-37-8-6, 88 points.

Who’s new: Hlinka.

Outlook: There were 10 Czechs on the training-camp roster, which was fitting because Hlinka is a former national team player and coach. He coached the Czechs to the 1998 Olympic gold medal in Nagano, Japan. In Jaromir Jagr, Hlinka has the game’s best player. Jagr had 42 goals and a league-leading 96 points. He would have topped 100 points, but missed 19 games because of injuries. But there is more to the Penguins than Jagr, which is why they upset Washington in the first round of the playoffs and gave Philadelphia fits before losing in the second. Alexei Kovalev and Robert Lang, two veteran forwards, each had career highs in goals and points last season, Kovalev had 26 goals and 66 points and Lang had 23 goals and 65 points, giving the Penguins good balance beyond Jagr.

9. OTTAWA

Coach: Jacques Martin, sixth season.

1999-2000: 41-30-11-2, 95 points.

Who’s new: Left wing Derek King (free agent), right wing David Oliver (free agent), center Alexei Yashin (ended yearlong holdout).

Outlook: The Yashin affair stinks. You get the idea the Senators would trade him for a bunch of moldy sweat socks if they could swing the deal. Who wants him? Although gifted on the ice, he’s not worth the trouble off it. All of which leads to the unavoidable conclusion that Yashin’s return after a bitter yearlong holdout will do more harm than good to the Senators. Yashin’s contract fight overshadowed the development of several quality forwards in Ottawa last season. Marian Hossa, a second-year player, tied veteran Shawn McEachern for the team lead with 29 goals. Radek Bonk finally seemed to find himself, scoring a team-leading 60 points. He also was the Senators’ leader in face-off winning percentage (52%) and in hits (211). Patrick Lalime, a former Duck minor-leaguer, has emerged as the team’s No. 1 goaltender.

10. CAROLINA

Coach: Paul Maurice, sixth season.

1999-2000: 37-35-10, 84 points.

Who’s new: Defenseman Kevin Hatcher (free agent), defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh (trade with Colorado).

Outlook: Whether it has been located in Hartford, Conn., Greensboro, N.C., or Raleigh, N.C., there has been one constant with this franchise: it’s an also-ran. The Hurricanes/Whalers missed the playoffs last season for the seventh time in eight seasons. This season’s 10th-place finish won’t do much to establish a fan base in Carolina, where Atlantic Coast Conference basketball rules the winter (and summer, fall and spring). Hatcher and Ozolinsh give the Hurricanes a new presence on defense. Right wing Sami Kapanen (24 goals, 48 points) is one of the league’s great unknown players and it’s simply because he’s stuck in Carolina.

11. BOSTON

Coach: Pat Burns, fourth season.

1999-2000: 24-39-19-6, 73 points.

Who’s new: Defenseman Paul Coffey (free agent), right wing Andrei Kovalenko (free agent), defenseman Peter Popovic (free agent), goalie Kay Whitmore (trade with Edmonton).

Outlook: “Bruins in Ruins” should be a standing headline in the Boston newspapers. There’s nothing to like here as a once-proud franchise slips into the nether world of the Tampa Bays and Atlantas of the NHL. Blame it on General Manager Harry Sinden. Everyone else does. Center Joe Thornton (23 goals, 60 points) has a promising future--not here, of course, but after Sinden makes a poor trade to save the Bruins a few bucks at some point down the road. Left wing Anson Carter, a potential all-star anyplace else, remains unsigned and the subject of trade rumors.

12. MONTREAL

Coach: Alain Vigneault, fourth season.

1999-2000: 35-38-9-4, 83 points.

Who’s new: Goalie Kevin Hodson (trade with Tampa Bay), defenseman Darryl Shannon (free agent).

Outlook: Season-ticket sales reportedly fell from 18,000 to 12,000 and that’s a remarkable achievement in a hockey-mad city that once awaited Stanley Cup victory celebrations like children looking forward to Christmas morning. The Molson beer company put the team and the arena up for sale last summer, another zinger to the city’s dwindling confidence in the club. Matters might improve on the ice if center Saku Koivu avoids knee and shoulder injuries that sidelined him for 57 games last season. Right wing Martin Rucinsky (49 points) re-signed Sept. 6 after it appeared he would be traded, so that’s good news for fans of Les Habs.

13. N.Y. ISLANDERS

Coach: Butch Goring, second season.

1999-2000: 24-49-9-1, 58 points.

Who’s new: Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck (trade with Philadelphia), left wing Oleg Kvasha and right wing Mark Parrish (trade with Florida), defenseman Roman Hamrlik (trade with Edmonton), defensemen Garry Galley and Kevin Haller (free agents) and center Mike Stapleton (free agent).

Outlook: At least one former Islander player refers to the club as Shawshank, as in the prison in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption.” Credit General Manager Mike Milbury for at least trying last summer to make the Islanders a place worth staying. His reconstruction job won’t get the Islanders into a playoff spot, but they certainly won’t be as woebegone as last season. Keep an eye on No. 1 draft pick Rick DiPietro, expected to be an all-star goaltender sooner rather than later.

14. TAMPA BAY

Coach: Steve Ludzik, second season.

1999-2000: 19-54-9-7, 54 points.

Who’s new: Goalie Kevin Weekes and defenseman Khristian Kudroc (trade with Islanders).

Outlook: Bleak. Outside of fast-developing center Vincent Lecavalier, the Lightning doesn’t have much going for it. Lecavalier, 20, is a treasure, however. He doubled his point total of his rookie season, scoring 25 goals and recording 42 assists. In time, he will be one of the league’s best. Trouble is, the Lightning don’t have much to put alongside him and that’s why the club is headed for its eighth losing season in its nine-season existence.

15. ATLANTA

Coach: Curt Fraser, second season.

1999-2000: 14-61-7-4, 39 points.

Who’s new: Jack Ferreira, director of player personnel.

Outlook: Hopeless, but glad to be back for a second season. Ferreira, who helped start the Ducks and San Jose Sharks, should help locate and acquire more talented players. After all, he helped guide the Ducks into the second round of the playoffs after only four seasons. But this figures to be a more difficult task. Center Patrick Stefan, the Thrashers’ top pick in 1999, had five goals and 25 points as an 18-year-old rookie. Give him time. He and defenseman Petr Buzek (five goals and 19 points) are the franchise’s future.