KEY ADDITIONS				KEY LOSSES
Name None	Pos.	From		Name Dave Andreychuk Bob Carpenter	Pos. F F	To Bruins Retired

Outlook
Let's say you are the general manager of an NHL team and your club has finished first in the Eastern Conference three years in a row, yet has been bounced in the opening playoff round in each of the last two seasons. What do you do? You make wholesale changes, right?

		Can Larry Robinson, returning to New Jersey as an assistant coach, help the Devils find a pulse, a personality or a heart? They just seem to be robotic and can't find the emotion when they need it. Maybe Robinson, an assistant on the '95 Cup team, can help head coach Robbie Ftorek inject some life into the Devils and get them over the emotional hump. Also, goalie Martin Brodeur needs to bounce back from his first off year. The Devils' goal should be virtually unchanged from last year, to at least reach the conference finals.

Not if you are New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello. He feels he still has the horses to contend for the Stanley Cup, and it all starts between the pipes. Goaltending is to hockey what pitching is to baseball, and the Devils have one of the best in the league in Martin Brodeur. Brodeur led the NHL in wins last season and was the only netminder to play in 70 games. Don't expect anything to change there this season, although Chris Terreri is certainly a capable backup.

New Jersey will once again go with a top line of Jason Arnott, Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora. The rest of the lines are interchangeable parts and will see equal amounts of ice time. As long as they stick to coach Robbie Ftorek's system, the Devils will not have a problem generating offense this season. The retirement of Bob Carpenter will have no effect on the scoresheet, but his experience, defensive skills and penalty killing will be missed.

Scott Niedermayer anchors the defense, along with veterans Scott Stevens and Ken Daneyko. Two players to watch are rookies Brian Rafalski and Colin White.

Lamoriello is hoping that the re-hiring of assistant coach Larry Robinson will rekindle the magic that brought the franchise its lone Stanley Cup back in 1995. Robinson will help the Devils improve from their seventh-place finish in team defense.

There's no doubt the Devils can finish over the 100-point mark for the fourth consecutive season. However, the jury is still out on the club's playoff chances. If Brodeur doesn't burn out, New Jersey will advance beyond the first round of the postseason, but beyond that is anybody's guess.

"All I want to do is beat Atlanta," said Ftorek, referring to his club's regular-season opener against the expansion Thrashers on Oct. 2.

'98-99 ATLANTIC STANDINGS
TEAM	W	L	T	Pts.
New Jersey	47	24	11	105
Philadelphia	37	26	19	93
Pittsburgh	38	30	14	90
N.Y. Rangers	33	38	11	77
N.Y. Islanders	24	48	10	58

The bottom line
Better or not: Not
By how much: 2-3 fewer wins
Most improved: Petr Sykora
Most valuable: Martin Brodeur
Biggest disappointment: Bobby Holik

Charles Avellino is a lead NHL researcher for ESPN.