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While the New York Rangers continued to stockpile pieces to complete their postseason puzzle, the other teams in the Atlantic Division did little to improve themselves and compete with the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Since last season's acquisitions of Bobby Holik and Darius Kasparaitis did nothing to end the Rangers' six-year playoff drought, general manager and coach Glen Sather took a new tact and brought in some less expensive talent.
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Still without a defenseman who strikes fear into opposing forwards, the Rangers
signed free agent Greg de Vries, who immediately becomes the steadiest player
on the blue line. Ticketmaster
A member of Colorado's Stanley Cup championship team in 2001, de Vries joins New York after recording a career-high 32 points last season. He is expected to stabilize a primarily offensive group consisting of Tom Poti, Vladimir Malakhov and Brian Leetch, who sat out the preseason with an ankle injury.
Leetch and others also missed significant time last season due to assorted ailments.
"We have to stay healthy. That's the first thing," Sather said. "(The players) have been very attentive. They're getting smarter and more disciplined. They're playing a very concentrated team style now. We're going to keep after that. But I'd like to see us stay healthy all year." Ticketmaster
Among other areas with which Sather was unhappy last season was production from the left side. He addressed that by signing free agents Martin Rucinsky, Jan Hlavac and Chris Simon.
After banging heads with his fists to make his mark in the NHL, Simon turned them with his scoring prowess in 1999-00, netting 29 goals. But he has not scored more than 14 since and also has not dropped the gloves with the same regularity.
Captain Mark Messier returns for his 25th NHL season but will be relegated to fourth-line duty should he remain healthy. And New York also will have the services of Anson Carter and dynamic Russian Alexei Kovalev for a full season. But the future of countryman Pavel Bure remains uncertain with the "Russian Rocket" plagued by knee injuries.
The trade that brought Mike Dunham to the Rangers proved crucial with the retirement of Mike Richter due to post-concussion symptoms. Dunham was impressive in a 43-game audition last season, going 19-17-5 with five shutouts and a .924 save percentage. Ticketmaster
The New Jersey Devils battled through seven-game series with Ottawa and Anaheim last season to capture their third Stanley Cup in nine years. They did it with a new coach but adhered to their trademark defensive style.
Only four defensemen return, however, as Ken Daneyko - a name synonymous with the Devils - retired and Richard Smehlik and Oleg Tverdovsky were not re-signed.
That leaves 39-year-old captain Scott Stevens, rugged Colin White and offensive-minded Scott Niedermayer and Brian Rafalski to break in rookies David Hale and Paul Martin. Hard-hitting Sean Brown came over from Boston as a free agent and could fill Daneyko's spot. Pat Burns, who has worn out his welcome elsewhere after successful first seasons, must discover a way to shake that stigma.
"You have to have intensity to win. If you don't have intensity, you can't win," Burns said. "That's not just us maintaining it, that's every club. If you don't have day-to-day intensity, you're not going to win too many games."
Burns' first task is finding someone to replace Joe Nieuwendyk, who fled to Toronto as a free agent. Nieuwendyk scored just 17 times last season and missed Game Seven of the conference finals and the entire Stanley Cup Finals due to a torn oblique muscle.
One possibile replacement is Michael Rupp, the hero of Game Seven against Anaheim. Rupp, who scored two goals in that game and twice in his NHL debut, stands 6-5 and will open up ice that others cannot.
Another center who should handle some of the workload is 42-year-old Igor Larionov, who is seeking a final shot at a fourth championship.
With Patrick Roy's retirement, Martin Brodeur finally may get his due as hockey's best goalie. He posted his sixth consecutive 70-game season, shared the Jennings Trophy and captured his elusive first Vezina Trophy, despite well-publicized marital problems.
Complacency, Brodeur said, is the Devils' biggest nemesis.
"We missed the playoffs after winning the Stanley Cup in '95," he noted. "We were scared that was going to happen again in 2001 after winning the Cup in 2000, (so) we had a great season. We're going to have to be like that again."
The Philadelphia Flyers believed they had the talent last season to win their first Stanley Cup since 1975. But after ousting Toronto in a gut-wrenching seven-game series, Philadelphia got enigmatic goaltending from Roman Cechmanek and fell to Ottawa.
That was the final straw for general manager Bob Clarke, who shipped Cechmanek to Los Angeles for a draft pick. But the legendary Philadelphia captain may have cut off his nose to spite his face; instead of acquiring a playoff-proven replacement, he settled on oft-injured free agent Jeff Hackett.
A solid netminder when healthy, Hackett never has played more than 58 games in a season and has totaled just 70 over the past three. He also has yet to win a playoff series, appearing in just 12 postseason contests over a 14-year career.
But center Simon Gagne said he thinks Hackett will thrive in Philadelphia.
"(He) knows the game. He never had a chance to play with a great team," Gagne explained. "I think with the system we play, very defensively, (he'll) benefit where he is getting less shots on goal."
The acquisition of Hackett was the extent of Clarke's offseason retooling, but there are at least two rookies who could be factors in Philadelphia.
Defensemen Jeff Woywitka and Joni Pitkanen, the Flyers' first-round draft picks in 2001 and 2002, respectively, enjoyed strong training camps and may infuse youth to an aging group of blue liners. Dennis Seidenberg and Jim Vandermeer, who made their NHL debuts last season, hope to stick for the entire 2003-04 campaign.
But even with the departure of Dmitry Yushkevich, Philadelphia has five veteran defensemen in front of Hackett, leaving two to three spots for four youngsters to fill. The decision to leave 32-year-old Chris Therien unprotected in the waiver draft is an indication of things to come.
The lack of scoring last season left coach Ken Hitchcock scratching his head. With forwards like Gagne, Mark Recchi, Jeremy Roenick, Keith Primeau, John LeClair and Tony Amonte, Philadelphia could be expected to challenge for the NHL scoring lead.
But the Flyers were held to two goals or fewer in 46 games and were shut out nine times. The power play was abysmal, hovering near the bottom of the league for most of the season before finishing 22nd.
Despite the inability to find the back of the net, the Flyers finished just one point behind first-place New Jersey last season. They must get the production expected of their stars if they hope to remain near the top of the standings in 2003-04.
What do you do when your second-year coach leads the team to its second straight playoff appearance after a seven-year drought? Fire him, of course.
That's what New York Islanders general manager Mike Milbury did to Peter Laviolette, who made a splash in his NHL coaching debut by guiding the Isles to a second-place finish before losing a seven-game playoff series to Toronto.
Laviolette also got New York into the playoffs last season, but he lost the confidence of his players down the stretch and was replaced by Steve Stirling, who coached the Isles' AHL affiliate in Bridgeport for two years.
Unfortunately for Islander fans, that was the only major move Milbury made to improve the team. Former Isle Mariusz Czerkawski, who floundered in Montreal last season, was brought back with hopes he would regain his scoring touch.
Otherwise, players like Alexei Yashin, captain Michael Peca and Mark Parrish will be counted on to bounce back from subpar seasons. And others, such as Jason Blake and Dave Scatchard, must prove their career seasons were no fluke.
"Michael Peca, Eric Cairns and Radek Martinek are the guys who may not have been too happy with the year they had last year. This year, they have to feel pretty good about themselves," Stirling said. "The more I can get guys to feel good about themselves, the more I hope it will snowball."
New York's defense is solid, with workhorse Adrian Aucoin, Roman Hamrlik, Janne Niinimaa and Kenny Jonsson as good a foursome as any in the East. Having Niinimaa for a full season also should help improve the power play. Ticketmaster
This finally may be the year Rick DiPietro gets to prove he was worthy of being selected first overall in the 2000 draft.
DiPietro has played just 30 games over two seasons, going 5-20-3 with a .883 save percentage. He is not short of confidence and possesses excellent reflexes and puckhandling skills but has a tendency to gamble and occasionally will allow a soft goal.
Should DiPietro need more seasoning, the Isles can fall back on eight-year veteran Garth Snow.
The good news for Pittsburgh Penguins' fans is that Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux decided to return for another season. The bad news is that he is one of a handful of players the Penguins can count on to score.
The Penguins, who continue to hemorrhage money, were forced to trade more high-priced talent last season and were left with a 29th-place finish. Lemieux and Martin Straka are the only proven scorers on the roster, while Aleksey Morozov showed promise, following a 20-goal campaign with 25 points in 27 games before suffering a wrist injury.
After that, Pittsburgh has few sure things. Kris Beech, Ramzi Abid and Rico Fata all were expected to be strong offensive players when drafted but have yet to fulfill their potential. Mike Eastwood, Brian Holzinger and Kelly Buchberger will add character but little else.
The defense also is suspect. Dick Tarnstrom helped make the power play successful but looked puzzled in his own zone at times. Josef Melichar and Michal Rozsival have not lived up to expectations and 38-year-old Marc Bergevin offers little more than comic relief in the locker room.
Johan Hedberg was traded to Vancouver after three seasons in Pittsburgh, a move that enabled the Penguins to take a look at their future immediately.
After trading up to get the top overall pick in June, Pittsburgh selected goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. The 18-year-old impressed during the preseason after posting a 17-24-6 record and 3.36 goals-against average in the offense-happy Quebec junior league. But the Penguins could return Fleury to juniors, considering the state of their defense.
That would leave Jean-Sebastien Aubin and Sebastien Caron to handle the goaltending duties.
With an overabundance of questions and very little on which to fall back, few have been put in a more difficult position than rookie coach Ed Olczyk. Just three years removed from his playing days, Olczyk had no coaching experience when he was plucked from the broadcast booth.
Unless miracles take place at Mellon Arena, the 36-year-old Olczyk will have a head of gray hair before long.