THE NHL DEPARTMENT

In preseason, hope springs eternal. Alas, so does uncertainty.

FILL IN THE BLANKS

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Is it time for the Kings' renaissance?

Happens every September. Training camps begin and questions swirl. Which team is the sure thing? The dark horse? Cinderella? Can the best stay at the top? Can the worst improve? Time will tell, of course, but who can wait? (Yet another question!) Here are our cold answers to hot questions for two Cup contenders and three wannabes.

LONG QUESTION: NEW OWNER, GM, COACH AND PLAYERS. BUT IS NEW NECESSARILY BETTER?
The Lightning had an, ahem, interesting summer. Owners Len Barrie and Oren Koules put rookie VP of Hockey Ops Brian Lawton in charge. ESPN analyst Barry Melrose was hired as coach after a long hiatus from the game. And the team made dozens of moves, including an 11-year, $85M extension for C Vincent Lecavalier; the addition of former Penguin wingers Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Adam Hall and Mark Recchi, who add punch and grit; and the signing of 2008 No. 1 draft pick Steven Stamkos, whose skating Melrose calls "beautiful." Alas, beauty and grit cannot lift the Bolts out of the basement, but the acquisition of offensive D-man Andrej Meszaros and his 6 PPGs is a small step upward. SHORT ANSWER: NO

LONG QUESTION: CAN THE NHL'S BEST YOUNG CORE 4 KEEP THE PENS ATOP THE EAST?
With C's Evgeni Malkin (1) and Sidney Crosby (2) and G Marc-Andre Fleury (3) signed to long deals, the Pens core is the envy of every GM. Add C Jordan Staal (4), along with points Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar, and no team is stronger up the middle or on the PP. The loss of Stanley Cup rental Marian Hossa and Malone hurt, but their production should be replaced by F's Miro Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko. SHORT ANSWER: YES

LONG QUESTION: THE BEST GOT BETTER. BUT DOES THAT MAKE A REPEAT ANY EASIER?
The Red Wings scored 72 goals in 22 postseason games last spring en route to their 11th Cup. This season, the addition of sniping RW Hossa makes the offense—and the West's best power play—even more potent, alleviating any chance of a Grail hangover. GM Ken Holland welcomes back virtually his entire team, including the valuable defensive quartet of Nick Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall and Brad Stuart, and he's in the enviable position of having 30-plus NHLcaliber players to fill 23 roster spots. SHORT ANSWER: YES

LONG QUESTION: THE HAWKS ARE ON A ROLL, BUT CAN THEY RIDE THAT WAVE INTO THE POSTSEASON?
Chicago fans 3 have much to celebrate. Summer signings brought puck-moving D Brian Campbell and G Cristobal Huet to town. The Hawks will play the Winter Classic against the Wings at Wrigley on New Year's Day. And home games will be on TV for the first time since Tony Esposito was between the pipes (1975). To complement the youth of captain Jonathan Toews (20) and ROY
and leading scorer Patrick Kane (19), the Hawks added a savvy vet: legendary coach and personnel genius Scotty Bowman (75), and his 11-Cup résumé. SHORT ANSWER: YES

LONG QUESTION: IS SOMETHING SPECIAL ACTUALLY HAPPENING IN LA?
GM Dean Lombardi introduced new coach Terry Murray in mid-July as the man with the toughest job in the NHL. The Kings had just 71 points last season, tied with Tampa Bay for the NHL's fewest, and the team hasn't made the playoffs since 2002. Lombardi, who says he still needs a No. 1 and No. 2 D, a No. 2 center and two solid wings to be competitive, isn't expecting miracles. Still, he insists his team is on the rise. Naysayers may reminisce about vet blueliners Lubomir Visnovsky and Rob Blake, both of whom departed over the summer (to Edmonton and San Jose, respectively). But optimists point to young but talented F's Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Alexander Frolov, and to $11.5M in cap room as examples of what's to come. So, while most of their players are age 25 or younger and they'll take their lumps … SHORT ANSWER: YES

ON THE HRINK

BY E.J. HRADEK

If the young and rebuilding Kings (see above) hope to break their five-season playoff drought, they'll need to take advantage of early home cooking—they play 29 of their first 43 games at the Staples Center. On the flip side, thanks to late-season scheduling conflicts (Grammys, Pac-10 men's basketball tournament, ISU World Figure Skating Championships, Lakers and Clippers games), they play 27 of their final 39 games on the road … New Panthers D BRYAN MCCABE had plenty of time to find a new home in South Florida. In early August, the former Leaf agreed to waive his no-movement clause—meaning he could neither be traded nor sent to the minors—and accept being dealt to Florida. But the Panthers wouldn't sign off on the deal until Sept. 2. Why? Money. If the deal had been finalized before Sept 1, Florida would have been on the hook for McCabe's $2M bonus due the first of the month … Expect Pittsburgh blue line prospect ALEX GOLIGOSKI to get a serious look in camp. "He can get the puck and move it quickly," says one scout, who compares Goligoski favorably to fellow University of Minnesota alums PAUL MARTIN (Devils) and JORDAN LEOPOLD (Avs) … Some NHL suits just can't get enough of one another. GMs KEN HOLLAND (Detroit), DALE TALLON (Chicago), DOUG WILSON (San Jose) and VP of Player Personnel DOUG ARMSTRONG (St. Louis) were among a group who spent a summer week working on their golf games in Ireland and Scotland. How'd they do? Put it this way: You may want Tallon in your foursome, but you'll still want Holland (a four-time Cup winner) running your franchise.

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