This is the same Lamoriello who last month jumped into the ambulance and rode to the hospital with Patrik Elias when the sharpshooting winger suffered a concussion during a game in Colorado.

Lou Lams, GM/EMT.

Lamoriello, who entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in November as a builder, sinks his fingers into every facet of the business. He’ll tell you that he worries over the menu - whether the rolls are warmed to the proper temperature - for the team’s charter flights. For some, it’s micromanaging and maddening. For others, it’s total attention to detail, the quirky and near-maniacal traits of genius.

The Devils have won the Stanley Cup three times during Lamoriello’s time in New Jersey. So, call me quirky, maybe even maniacal, but my hand is up for genius.

Lamoriello gave up two decent roster players, defenseman Johnny Oduya and forward Nicklas Bergfors (a former first-round pick), in the Kovalchuk swap. He also sent Quebec League tough guy Patrice Cormier (projected as a third- or fourth-liner in the NHL) and a first-round pick to the Thrashers. The sides will swap second-round picks as a way for the Devils to mitigate the damage of surrendering the first-rounder, but the Devils have such a rich history of making hay with late-round picks, the second-round swap probably speaks most of all to Lamoriello’s perpetual mental gyrations.

Truth is, Thrashers GM Don Waddell had his hand forced by Kovalchuk, who refused a 12-year, $101 million extension and was on course to walk away as an unrestricted free agent July 1. Is he headed back to Atlanta over the summer? Probably not after landing in New Jersey and professing, “For the first time in my career, I’m with a first-class organization.’’ Ouch. Five-minute major for eye-gouging.

The Panthers last season opted to keep slick defenseman Jay Bouwmeester under similar circumstances, then missed the playoffs and watched Bouwmeester hitch on with the Flames. Waddell wasn’t going the Bouwmeester route, but he also couldn’t drum up the market to bring back a big-name asset or two, especially when it became clear the Blackhawks weren’t interested in proactive salary trimming that might have yielded, say, Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg.

Absent the high-profile names, Waddell brought home a pair of ready-to-play NHLers, the better of whom is Oduya, who nightly logs 18-22 minutes of smart, dependable back-line duty. At his best, Bergfors is probably a competent second-liner, unless he were to catch fire with just the right linemate. Unfortunately, that guy is the big-shooting new stud in the Devils lineup.

Could the Bruins, dropping like a 50-gallon bucket of pucks in the East, have cobbled together an equal four-part asset play for Kovalchuk? Without a doubt. The ready-to-play NHLers would have been Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart (recovering from finger surgery), along with Max Sauve or Jamie Arniel (both 2008 draft picks), and a first-rounder (not the Toronto/Phil Kessel pick this year).

It became clear Wednesday night that the Bruins weren’t among the aggressive bidders. In his three-plus seasons in charge of the Spoked-B franchise, GM Peter Chiarelli has been aggressive around July 1 (his watch led to the pricy Zdeno Chara, Marc Savard, and Michael Ryder acquisitions) and, more recently, in the re-signing of roster players (Tim Thomas, David Krejci, Tuukka Rask, Milan Lucic).

On-the-fly fixes have not been Peter the Patient’s domain. He was far too slow to react his rookie year when the club’s protracted meltdown out of the holiday break led to a postseason DNQ. His inaction this time, amid a stupefying 1-9-4 collapse, also could deliver a DNQ.

If not for seven other teams in the conference being almost equally impotent, the Black-and-Gold follies of the last three weeks might already have eliminated any postseason aspirations.

For all their bumblings, the Bruins can recover and pinch a playoff berth, but the burden now is squarely on Chiarelli to make a move or two in hopes of bringing an emotional spark to his flat-lined bunch. Emotion and confidence can carry hockey teams. The Bruins are absent both.

It’s equally clear that Chiarelli’s coach, Claude Julien, is not going to break form by shaking up lines, benching underperformers, clipping ice time, playing on individual pride. His ship may be taking on more water than the Edmund Fitzgerald, but Julien’s compass is fixed, his course charted. Is that admirable, insane, or something in between? Julien is like Popeye: “I ams what I ams.’’

We know there are deals to make. Witness last week’s machinations: Toronto, Calgary, New Jersey, and Atlanta. What remains to be seen now, right now, is whether Chiarelli is nimble enough, sharp enough to pull one off.

The Leafs aren’t likely to move into the playoff picture, having left too many points on the table, mainly because of spotty netminding. But Giguere, MVP of the ’03 playoffs, is only 32 years old and remains fully capable of shouldering a heavy workload - similar to his days in Anaheim when Burke was Ducks GM. He is also now reunited with goalie guru Francois Allaire.

If the Leafs could play a respectable .500 the rest of the way and finish with, say, 30 victories, there are enough other bad squads, especially in the East, that their first-round pick (currently held by Boston) could fall from the 1-3 range to 6-9.

Keep in mind, no club can move up more than four slots in the lottery.

Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.