KEY ADDITIONS				KEY LOSSES
Name Ted Donato Oleg Tverdovsky	Pos. F D	From Senators Coyotes		Name Travis Green Patrick Lalime Jamie Pushor	Pos. F G D	To Coyotes Senators Stars

Outlook
Let's get right to the point. Anaheim could put Moe, Larry and Curly on its second line and still be a respected opponent.

		Grit is a big factor with the Mighty Ducks. Craig Hartsburg has already talked about it as an objective for this year. The Ducks need to be a gritty team and win the grind-them-out games, which they weren't able to do last year. They have scorers in Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanee, but they need to win the close games on the road. Winning one playoff round and getting into the second is realistic. The Ducks haven't made too many changes, except picking up defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky. He will help them from the back end and in four-on-four situations when they go to overtime. Otherwise, they don't have much mobility on defense. The defense still needs a key player, like an Ulf Samuelsson, an experienced established player to anchor the defense.

But the Might Ducks do much better than that.

The duo of Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya is about as formidable a pair as there is in the NHL, accounting for 40 percent of Anaheim's goals last season. No other combination in theleague had a larger percentage of their club's offense.

Unfortunately for the Mighty Ducks and their fans, that's all the firepower that exists on this club.

For the Ducks to return to the playoffs and avoid a first-round sweep this time around, they have to play air-tight defense and pray that Kariya and Selanne stay healthy. Last season, the two combined missed just seven games (all by Selanne) and made the postseason. The previous campaign, Kariya and Selanne missed 69 games, and to no one's surprise, Anaheim missed the playoffs.

Forwards like Ted Donato, Matt Cullen and Marty McInnis must have career years for the Ducks to take things a step farther. Left wing Maxim Balmochnykh, selected in the second round (45th overall), could develop fairly quickly and help out.

They're not flashy, but Anaheim's defense is adequate. Oleg Tverdovsky returns for his second tour of duty with the Ducks and will provide some offense, along with veteran Fredrik Olausson. Jason Marshall and Ruslan Salei provide a physical presence.

Workhorse Guy Hebert will play in 60-plus games between the pipes.

The Mighty Ducks have yet to make it to the postseason in consecutive seasons in their brief history. And with offseason improvements by San Jose, Chicago and Los Angeles, it's not a certainty to happen this time around, either.

'98-99 PACIFIC STANDINGS
TEAM	W	L	T	Pts.
Dallas	51	19	12	114
Phoenix	39	31	12	90
Anaheim	35	34	13	83
San Jose	31	33	18	80
Los Angeles	32	45	5	69

The bottom line
Better or not: Not
By how much: 3 fewer wins
Most improved: Matt Cullen
Most valuable: Paul Kariya
Biggest disappointment: Fredrik Olausson

Charles Avellino is a lead NHL researcher for ESPN.