Eastern Conference

Let's Make a Deal: Forward Brendan Shanahan has resigned his captaincy and asked to be traded. General manager Jim Rutherford doesn't have much choice but to accommodate Shanahan, so Hartford's success will depend on Rutherford's deal-making skill. If he gets one or two impact forwards and a prospect for Shanahan, the Whalers will be O.K. If not, avert your eyes. Shanahan is a heart-and-soul player, but his heart was never in Hartford after his wrenching trade from the St. Louis Blues in 1995.

The Talent: Hartford has some decent players, including a defense of Jeff Brown, Glen Wesley, Adam Burt and Gerald Diduck, speedy sniper Geoff Sanderson and goalie Sean Burke. This will be a telling year for young centers Andrei Nikolishin and Jeff O'Neill, who could be on their way to stardom or to being disparaged as overrated prospects.

Buffalo Sabres

Slapshot Lives! The Sabres might not be good, but they are bad. With Matthew Barnaby, Brad May and Rob Ray, they're ready to rumble anytime. Buffalo, which led the NHL in penalties last season, even inspired a new rule: The so-called Ray Rule prohibits a player from pulling off his jersey during a fight. Ray's striptease act made it difficult for opponents to get a grip on him in a scuffle. "I've been working on it," Ray says of finding a way around the rule. "The trick is to get a sweater that leaves me enough room to keep punching even when the other guy grabs hold of it."

The Building: The Sabres have moved from the creaky Aud to the Marine Midland Arena, which seats 18,500 and has 1990s (not 1890s) amenities. If the building does its revenue-producing job, eventually Buffalo will get into the black and be competitive. Until then the Sabres will continue to hope they get lucky in the draft.

Two-Man Team: You must give fans premium players if you sell seats at premium prices. The Sabres have two such performers: goalie Dominik Hasek and center Pat LaFontaine. LaFontaine, however, with a big contract ($4 million a year) and no quality wingers to play with, could be traded by Christmas.

New York Islanders

Loading Up: In two years the Islanders will be a playoff team because they've stockpiled talented young players such as goal-tender Eric Fichaud, defensemen Bryan McCabe, Bryan Berard and Kenny Jonsson, and forwards Todd Bertuzzi, Travis Green and Ziggy Palffy. (Green was bogged down in a contract dispute as SI went to press.)

Looking for an HMO: After eight Islanders sustained concussions last season, general manager Mike Milbury replaced the entire training and medical staffs.

Idiot-Proof: This year the Islanders will occasionally wear a third jersey, which features the Long Island emblem they had worn until last season. The plan is to deep-six the egregious fisherman logo next season and return to the former logo. "That's good," one player said. "We looked like idiots."