The Stanley Cup Finals matchup is set, Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Detroit Red Wings Part 2....

With Detroit's 2-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks last night it setup the rematch from last years Stanley Cup Finals. This should be an exciting match up with a few interesting subplots. The first little subplot is with Marian Hossa spurning the Penguins long term contract offer to sign a one year deal with the Red Wings. Hossa felt like he had a better chance of winning a Cup with the Wings than with Pens, which normally I would give that to you but look at the success he had last year with The Pens and he only played a couple of months with them. So essentially Hossa took experience and depth over talent and long term security, so it will be interesting to see if the Pens try harder to prove Hossa wrong, or if Hossa will try harder to make himself look better. The other subplot is the scheduling of the series, the first two games are Saturday and Sunday so NBC can carry both games. The schedule should work in favor of the Penguins because they have had an extra day to rest and have already played back-to-back games during the playoffs. The Wings were already beat up during their last series and with the little rest they have no time to recover, but then again this is the Detroit Red Wings and they are a machine and will just plug guys in and not lose any production. The Penguins are coming in playing an entirely different style of game than last year's squad and the newer additions(Guerin, Kunitz, and Adams) have had a productive postseason working alongside of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Pittsburgh had a tougher road to this year's Finals than last year, but Detroit has looked like the unstoppable team knocking off two of their toughest rivals in back-to-back series. The Pens will benefit from last years Cup run and they have a faster more open offense but they can still play defense once they get the lead. The Red Wings play the style of game that can take away the speed and quickness of Pittsburgh with their puck control offense and constant fore checking on defense. I think this series will go 6 or 7 games with a few going into overtime, which will be good for the NHL. The series kicks off in Detroit on Saturday night and Game 2 will be less than 24 hours later.

GO PENGUINS!