•The Mighty Ducks have to find some puck-moving defensemen to start their transition game for offensive stars Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne.

The Lightning opened training camp this year in Innsbruck, Austria, site of the NHL's International Challenge. Hoping to promote unity, the team passed on a chance to stay at a plush downtown hotel-casino and instead...

The Islanders and the Stanley Cup champion Red Wings were the most difficult teams to shut out last season. Each was whitewashed only twice.

At the Panthers' new $184 million arena, something called the National Car Rental Center, in Sunrise, fans can eat sushi, salmon and fruit salad and choose from 18 desserts. There are seats with leather armrests and...

When your team has no proven goaltender, your best player demands to be traded, your captain is too old to play shuffleboard and your roster includes five rookies, you're in need of comfort. Perhaps that's why Mike...

•New goalie Curtis Joseph must be as stingy in the regular season is he has been during the postseason for Toronto even to think about qualifying for the playoffs.

The Islanders said they needed a hoist, but a boost would be more like it, the kind you get from signing your best players and finding a goaltender who doesn't have a sunburn on the back of his neck from the goal...

•General manager Craig Patrick must continue to make outstanding trades-he stole Stu Barnes from the Panthers in 1997—for a club that counts every penny.

Since Dave Keon got the Conn Smythe in 1967, no Maple Leafs player has won a major NHL award (Hart, Norris, Ross or Vezina), the longest such streak by any team in the league.

•Enigmatic forward Alexei Kovalev must finally have a breakout season, something that should happen with John Muckler behind the New York bench.