The Stanley Cup Finals: Red Wings vs. Penguins

The Stanley Cup Finals

1. Detroit Red Wings (Western Conference)  vs.  2. Pittsburgh Penguins (Eastern Conference)

Crosby, Malkin, and Hossa vs. Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Lidstrom

The showcase of this match-up has been widely advertised as being the above match-ups, but if you look at the series that way, you are forgetting two major factors. Those two factors are what will ultimately decide who heads home with Lord Stanley's Cup. So what is it?

Depth & Experience

Detroit has an obvious advantage as far as depth goes. Before being injured, Detroit center Johan Franzen led all scorers in goals. He still holds that lead and is looking to play again after missing all of the last series. There is also Kris Draper, Niklas Kronwall, and Dan Cleary. Each of them is more than capable of playing hard-nosed shut-down hockey, which is just what Detroit needs to do if they want to stop Pittsburgh's marquee men. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, traded away most of their depth in order to get Hossa. This is where we will really see if the trade was worth it or if they gave up too much for him.

Now let's look at experience. This is Crosby's and Malkin's first Cup finals (not to mention that Sidney Crosby is still isn't old enough to drink), but he is expected to lead a team through their most important set of games thus far. Detroit, on the other hand, has been here before. Their captain Nicklas Lidstrom has been a part of three championships in his career along with center Kris Draper, and wingers Kirk Maltby and Tomas Holmstrom. They also have former Cup winners in Brian Rafalski, Chris Chelios, Pavel Datsyuk, Chris Osgood, and recently irrelevant Dominick Hasek. They have been here before and know first hand what it takes to win it all.

Pittsburgh has three of the most exciting players in the league right now and if it were left up to the match-up that I said at the beginning, Pittsburgh would walk away with the Cup. It's not though, and that is what brings us to the final bottom line of the 2008 NHL playoffs.

Bottom Line: Detroit in Seven