Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins march into the best Stanley Cup Finals match-up in years against the Detroit Red Wings. (Source: Getty Images)

Coming off of last year’s disastrous Stanley Cup final which failed miserably in delivering a compelling series or TV ratings (the Finals set all-time lows in the US), the NHL couldn’t have dreamt up a more interesting and engaging Stanley Cup Final for fans. On paper the Detroit Red Wings vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins is the most compelling match-up in the past 20 years. This final has it all; offensively gifted clubs that flourish in the puck possession game, established and passionate hockey bases, star power on both sides of the equation and in my opinion two of the league’s three best players in Evgeni Malkin and the NHL’s most marketable commodity, Sidney Crosby.

This Stanley Cup match-up has the potential to elevate the NHL to mainstream heights not even dared mentioned since June 1994 when Sports Illustrated ran the cover after the New York Rangers first Stanley Cup victory in 50-odd years “Why the NHL is hot and the NBA is not”. The fact that Sidney Crosby, the face of the NHL, is front and centre for the biggest series of them all at age 20 in only his third season is a major windfall for a league trying to gain ground in the uphill battle it put itself in following the damaging lockout. Already Crosby has achieved a measure of a household familiarity amongst non-hockey aficionados who may have seen his Gatorade or Reebok commercials, his Tonight Show appearance, his Men’s Fitness cover story, his GQ spread, etc. With a strong performance against Detroit, Sidney Crosby could very well have his official coronation as the next legitimate mainstream athlete in the US.

The Red Wings and Penguins followed very divergent paths to reach this point. The President’s Trophy Red Wings led the NHL in points virtually from start to finish spurned on by a great start to the year which saw them open the 2007-08 campaign with a 13-2-1 record. The Penguins meanwhile struggled immensely out of the gate before finding their game in late November.

The Penguins march to the Stanley Cup Finals started  against the Ottawa Senators but not the game or series you’re likely thinking of. The Pens’ route to cup contender can be traced back to the third period of a November 22^nd, 2007 game against the Sens in Ottawa.  The Pens entered the game with an 8-11-2 record, a significantly disappointing and troublesome start.

The Sens scored 1:04 in the third period of that game on a Christoph Schubert goal to go up 5-3. The Pens had already lifted a struggling Marc-Andre Fleury in the 1^st period after he gave up two quick goals. A little less than five minutes after Ottawa’s 5^th goal the Pens cut the margin to 5-4 on a Ryan Malone marker. Just over a minute later a Sergei Gonchar blast evens the score at 5; a score which would hold up until the shootout. In the shootout the Pens pulled off the comeback and prevailed on a beautiful backhand goal from Jarkko Ruutu of all people.

This game was unquestionably the turning point of the season. Had the Penguins lost this game it would be easy to conclude that Michel Therrien’s job security would be in such peril than buying green bananas in the Therrien household would be ill-advised. After struggling mightily through the first 21 games of the year the Penguins used the comeback against the Sens as the launching point of the season. Including that November 22^nd game the Pens have gone an unreal 51-18-6 in their last 75 games including the 12-2 record they’ve complied thus far in the playoffs.  

The hype entering these Finals has squarely been focused on Sidney Crosby and rightfully so, but guaranteed if Evgeni Malkin had a good command of the English language he would be much more prominent in the discussion of the series than he currently is. Malkin has proved to be an absolute beast this season, especially when Sidney Crosby was out of the lineup with a high ankle sprain for a good portion of the second half of the season. In those games where Malkin was the unquestioned 1A of the Penguins he was a dominant force, a bull in a china shop, making his linemates Ryan Malone and Petr Sykora better, playing a physical up tempo brand of hockey, back-checking, blocking shots, firing up his teammates with his emotional brand of play. Simply put, in those games that Crosby was out of the lineup Gino was the best player in the league.  To me Malkin’s performance this season proved to me that he will one day be the better player when all is said and done over Alex Ovechkin, and that’s with all respect to the terrific style and passion in which AO plays each and every game with.

Prediction

I don’t want to diminish the talents of the Red Wings; Henerik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk are tremendous talents who have learned how to perform equally as well in the post-season after several playoff Houdini performances earlier in their careers. Nick Lidstrom is building on a career that will one day see him potentially unseating Doug Harvey as the second greatest NHL defenseman to ever play the game and without question he will be ordained as soon as his retirement papers are filed as the best European player that’s ever graced the NHL. Despite these three world-class talents I still see the Pens prevailing.

 I make no apologies when I say I’m a diehard Penguins fan; I’ve been so since I was seven years old and followed the early years of Mario Lemieux, so of course I see the Penguins prevailing in this series. I really don’t buy into the theory that you need experience to win. Sometimes the impetuousness of youth prevails over the steady calm of experience, plus these young Penguins are already playing with a level of resolve years above their age.  Malkin and Crosby are the already two of the league’s best three players and the fact that Coach Therrien can roll them out line after line makes stopping both of them let alone either of them a near impossible task.

Penguins win in 6 games

Evgeni Malkin wins the Conn Smythe Trophy with a monster series.