twelve down, four to go

The Stanley Cup finals begin tonight, which is welcome because the only other hockey to watch is the Memorial Cup – the Rangers take on the Chiefs in the finals tomorrow down at the Aud, BTW. Back to the quest for Lord Stanley’s Cup…

In the conference finals, I managed to successfully predict victory for the Pens, but mistakenly thought Dallas would have more jump than they did – you can’t blame Marty Turco, though. So who will actually win it all now? The Red Wings seem to have a lot of momentum, even if their fans don’t actually go to the games to cheer them on; do people in Detroit even care about their team or is the economy that bad that people can’t afford the price of playoff tickets? Either way, the knock that Detroit has against them is the “Captain Canuck” factor. The question is whether Nicklas Lidstrom can break the “Captain Canuck” factor, but he has a lot of history working against him. The Pens, on the other hand, are a youthful bunch, might have the edge in the goaltending department (let’s face it, Osgood looks good because he faces a mere 15 shots per game) and are probably the most entertaining team in the league to watch. For the sake of boosting weak TV ratings in the US, the NHL needs Sid Crosby hoisting the Cup.

My choice? Pittsburgh – in six games, if they steal at least one of the first two games in Detroit.