Eastern Conference: Northeast

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NORTHEAST

Ottawa Senators
Last Season: 48-25-9 ( fourth in East); lost in Stanley Cup finals to Anaheim Key Addition: RW Shean Donovan
Key Losses: C Mike Comrie, D Tom Preissing, LW Peter Schaefer

Volchenkov led the league in blocked shots and was No. 12 in hits delivered. Dave Sandford/Getty Images

The Senators have made the playoffs for 10 straight years. They have had six 100-point seasons in that span, including the last four in a row. And after nearly a decade of playoff failures, they finally broke through last spring and reached the Stanley Cup finals. So what did Ottawa owner Eugene Melnyk do? He fired the team's G.M. of five years, John Muckler, and promoted coach Bryan Murray into the job.

Murray has plenty of front-office experience, having run teams in Detroit, Florida and Anaheim, turning the latter two into Cup finalists. But new coach John Paddock's NHL résumé is less impressive: a 106-138-37 record in 3 1/2 seasons behind the bench of the Winnipeg Jets in the early 1990s. He is, however, one of the most successful coaches in AHL history, having won Calder Cups with three franchises.

Paddock will still have the bulk of last year's team to work with. The Senators' top three forwards, wingers Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson and center Jason Spezza, are among the best in the league. All three ranked in the top 15 in scoring last season (Heatley was second in the NHL with 50 goals), and each tallied a postseason-high 22 points. Beyond its big three, Ottawa has enough depth that it let Mike Comrie go to the Islanders as a free agent (he'll be their No. 1 center) and traded left wing Peter Schaefer (the club's fifth-leading scorer a year ago) to the Bruins.

On the blue line the Senators are also loaded, with the likes of Wade Redden, Chris Phillips, Christoph Schubert and Anton Volchenkov. (The latter three were all better than +30.) But the key to Ottawa's playoff run a year ago was hotshot goalie Ray Emery, who emerged as a top 10 netminder (.918 save percentage) after taking over as the No. 1 in November. He was rewarded with a three-year, $9.5 million deal during the off-season and will be crucial to the Senators' chances of taking that final step.

Buffalo Sabres
Last Season: 53-22-7 (first in East); lost in conference finals to Ottawa
Key Addition: G Jocelyn Thibault
Key Losses: C Daniel Brière, G Ty Conklin, C Chris Drury, RW Dainius Zubrus

Don't expect a repeat of last season's league-best 53 wins and 113 points, not after two of the Sabres' top forwards, co-captains Daniel Brière (team-high 95 points) and Chris Drury (37 goals), bolted as free agents, to the Flyers and the Rangers, respectively. "It's a step back when you lose players like Chris and Danny," says G.M. Darcy Regier, "but I have a lot of faith in this group and their ability to grow."

Sixteen members of the team's projected 22-man roster were drafted and developed by the organization, giving the Sabres' front office and coaching staff an extra level of comfort with the players, and the players an extra level of familiarity with each other. One homegrown skater in particular will be under the microscope: left wing Thomas Vanek, who blossomed in his second season, leading the league in plus-minus (+47) and tying for fifth in goals (43). Vanek, 23, must not only help make up for the loss of Brière and Drury, but he also has to validate the seven-year, $50 million offer sheet that he signed with the Oilers this summer as a restricted free agent, which Buffalo was forced to match.

Toronto Maple Leafs
Last Season: 40-31-11 (ninth in East)
Key Additions: LW Mark Bell, LW Jason Blake, G Vesa Toskala
Key Loss: C Yanic Perreault

It has been eight decades since the Maple Leafs have gone three straight years without making the playoffs, but it appears that distinction will end this season. From goaltending to defensive inconsistency to offensive firepower, Toronto has too many questions to find its way into the postseason.

But at least the Leafs are trying: They acquired goalie Vesa Toskala and forward Mark Bell from the Sharks for three picks on draft day, then signed free-agent forward Jason Blake to a five-year, $20 million deal a week later. Both moves should pay immediate dividends.

Toronto thought it had acquired a No. 1 goalie a year ago when it dealt top prospect Tuukka Rask, a former first-rounder, to the Bruins for Andrew Raycroft. But Raycroft's middling performance (he won 37 games last season but ranked below the top 30 in goals-against average and save percentage) prompted the Leafs to surrender a first-round pick for Toskala, who shared the San Jose job with Evgeni Nabokov. Despite playing 12 fewer games than Nabokov, Toskala had one more win.

Blake, a 40-goal scorer with the Islanders a season ago, brings punch to a team whose second- and third-leading scorers were defensemen. Captain Mats Sundin took a $2.1 million pay cut, to $5.5 million, to free up money for a new linemate. "My only desire," says Sundin, "is to be part of a championship team here." That's not going to happen anytime soon.

Montreal Canadiens
Last Season: 42-34-6 (10th in East)
Key Additions: D Roman Hamrlik, RW Tom Kostopoulos, C Bryan Smolinski
Key Losses: C Radek Bonk, LW Sergei Samsonov, D Sheldon Souray

The Canadiens are stuck in a rut, having finished fourth in the division four times in the last five seasons. Worse, the storied franchise is slowly losing its relevance. In the off-season Montreal went after big-name free agents Daniel Brière, Brian Rafalski and Ryan Smyth but were spurned by all three; Brière's decision was particularly galling because he is a Quebec native.

The Habs need help up front for captain Saku Koivu and on the blue line after losing Sheldon Souray, who was the league's top goal scorer (26) among defensemen, to the Oilers as a free agent. The one place Montreal seems set is in goal, where All-Star Cristobal Huet has fought off competition from José Theodore and David Aebischer over the last two seasons to cement his position. But even if Huet repeats his performance of two seasons ago, when he led the league in save percentage, the Canadiens have too many other holes to even think about making the playoffs.

Boston Bruins
Last Season: 35-41-6 (13th in East)
Key Additions: G Manny Fernandez, LW Peter Schaefer, RW Shawn Thornton
Key Losses: RW Shean Donovan, G Hannu Toivonen

The Bruins, to put it mildly, were a mess last season, an uninspired bunch with a passive coach (Dave Lewis) and a rookie G.M. (Peter Chiarelli) who made moves for the sake of making moves. Yet despite a wildly inconsistent season and the seeming regression of several young players, it inexplicably took Chiarelli more than two months before he fired Lewis and brought in Claude Julien -- who himself had been axed by the Devils with a week left in the regular season.

Julien had a combined 121-86-17 record with Montreal and New Jersey and is expected to light a fire -- "He demands execution," Chiarelli says -- under a team that has most of its roster returning. The one significant change is the addition of goalie Manny Fernandez, who should keep the Bruins in games while their younger players develop. They also need 6' 9" defenseman Zdeno Chara to be the physical force he was when he played in Ottawa. But even in the best-case scenario, Boston will go another spring without seeing the postseason. -- Lisa Altobelli

MVP

Daniel Alfredsson. Lou Capozzola/SI

Daniel Alfredsson
RW, Senators
He's not the flashiest Ottawa forward, but the gritty 12th-year veteran, who holds the record for most games as a Senator (783), is the soul of the franchise and the first European captain to lead a team to the Cup finals.

Overrated

Alex Kovalev
RW, Canadiens
Except for a few standout seasons with the Penguins at the turn of the century, this talented Russian has been a big tease throughout his career. Montreal expects more than 18 goals and 47 points for $4.5 million per season.

Underrated

Henrik Tallinder
D, Sabres
Tallinder and Toni Lydman were Buffalo's top defensive pairing a year ago, but coach Lindy Ruff is splitting them up this season, giving Tallinder a chance to prove he can head up a second quality backline unit.

Pierre McGuire's In the Crease

Watch for third-year Senators forward Patrick Eaves to score at least 25 goals because of added maturity and minutes.... Centers Tim Connolly and Derek Roy have to be go to guys offensively for the Sabres. If they are, the rest of the offense will kick in....The Nik Antropov -- Mats Sundin -- Jason Blake line will create a ton of pure offense that will keep the Leafs in many games.... Will Saku Koivu want to finish his career in a turbulent environment like Montreal, or will he ask to be traded to a team that has a chance to win the Cup?

EASTERN CONFERENCE: Atlantic | Northeast | Southeast
WESTERN CONFERENCE: Central | Northwest | Pacific