THE coach can never rest easy when he works for the GM who never sleeps.

Elsewhere, Pat Burns would be knighted for a 16-8-1-3 record. To remain humble, however, he needs only recall that his predecessor Kevin Constantine fashioned a 20-8-1-2 regular season mark before Lou Lamoriello replaced him after losing the final two games of the playoffs.

While the Shorn Lip has piled up points despite his team’s scoring follies and its woeful power play, there is one aspect of Burns’ set-up that bears watching.

His reliance on stingy play could create a schism on the team: The defensemen and goalie on one side, the Devils’ marvelous goals-against a testament to their prowess, the forwards struggling to launch an attack from defense-first deep in their own zone on the other. Heroes and Villains. Care is required.

There are plenty of concerns inside the Devils’ locker room. Among them:

The scoreless-in-nine-games power play is confused when Burns creates new combinations with little practice time.

Burns is relying on his checking line too much 5-on-5 and not giving his scorers the ice-time that produces even-strength goals.

Burns short-circuits his power play by putting out defensive players in the final 20-30 seconds of the advantage.

Strategy doesn’t seem as precise or deep as when Slava Fetisov was running the power play as an assistant.

To be fair, Burns is surely in a Catch-22. There are reasons, even if they aren’t answers:

If the power play isn’t working, he is bound to try other combinations.

His checking line has also been his best scoring line, and he must go to the hot hand.

When a foe is killing off a penalty, they’re coming back with their top line, and tired PP players might be vulnerable to the attack of the fresh scorers.

The Fetisov business might be something important, however. Since he left the Devils to run the Russian hockey program, the power play has nose-dived from league-best his final season, to ninth last year, to 29th this season. That drop also coincided with the loss of Alex Mogilny, and now, the demolition of the “A” Line.

It’s not all rosy on this team that needs better balance to be its best. It is believed that that GM who never sleeps is heavily talking trade with Western Conference teams, and Colorado is still the most-mentioned trading partner.

The original solid rumor had Patrik Elias (0 goals in 11 games) Denver-bound for winger Alex Tanguay and defenseman Martin Skoula. Now the latest names are Milan Hedjuk and Dan Hinote, who made an impression on the Devils in the 2001 Finals. There are also mounting suggestions that Lamoriello would add suspended Mike Danton to the package. Phoenix is also mentioned as a possible trade partner, along with Los Angeles and San Jose.

With the holiday freeze coming Thursday, a deal should be made now, one that brings more offense, and perhaps it should come at the cost of one of their offensive defensemen. The Devils are stern-heavy, bow-light these days, and Lamoriello should be trimming up his ship.

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Devils play host to Senators Wednesday to complete home-and-home pair. They lost 4-3 in overtime in Ottawa Saturday after taking a 3-2 lead from a 2-0 deficit. Sergei Brylin and Jamie Langenbrunner each snapped nine-game goal droughts, and Christian Berglund ended his 13-game 0-fer. Joe Nieuwendyk’s millstone grew to 19 games without a goal . . . Devils finished road trip 0-1-0-1, and are 0-2-0-1 in last three on road.