With the Pittsburgh Penguins taking care of business on Wednesday and the Carolina Hurricanes finishing off the top seeded Bruins the pieces fell in place for the Penguins to have home ice advantage in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Pens were dominate at home towards the end of the season and that momentum carried over into the playoffs with them only losing two games. The Pens are making their second consecutive trip to the Eastern Finals for only their second time in team history...the other time the Pens were repeat champions in the early 1990's. The Pens and Canes spilt the season series 2-2 with both teams winning on the road. The Canes have had a difficult run through the playoffs so far needing to win both of their series on the road in Game 7's. Carolina knocked off the third seeded New York Rangers in 7 games and took an early 2-0 series lead over Boston before blowing the lead and needing to win in the seventh game. The Penguins discarded division rival Philadelphia in 6 games and got all they could handle for Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals before blowing them out in Game 7 on the road. I think this years Penguins team is better than last years due to the experience of making the Stanley Cup Finals, making the coaching change to a more wide open offense, and getting Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz who have played with the top two lines and have given the Pens some much needed production. I am looking forward to a rematch of last years Stanley Cup finals with Detroit Red Wings. I know I shouldn't sleep on the Canes because this team has a lot of the players from the team that won the Cup in 2006 but I think Pittsburgh is a determined team of destiny, with all the pieces falling into place for this team to rally like they did at the end of the season and for things to work out like they did for them getting the home ice for this round. Pittsburgh will win the series in 7 games.
GO PENGUINS!
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