Stanley Cup Preview And Predictions

The Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight as the Pittsburgh Penguins face the Nashville Predators. The Penguins are trying to become the first repeat winners since the salary cap was instituted by the NHL. The Predators are looking for the first championship ever.

This shapes up to be a great series. Pittsburgh has had the most potent offense in these playoffs and Nashville has been the best defensive team. The Penguins were extended to a second overtime in Game 7 in the last round against the Ottawa Senators. The Predators are pretty much the same team as the Senators, with probably a deeper and stronger defense but slightly less offensive firepower, especially with top centermen Ryan Johansen out for the series and Mike Fisher hoping to be ready after an injury against the Anaheim Ducks in the prior series. But whatever the Predator forwards have lacked has been more than compensated by the scoring provided by the Nashville defense.

Pittsburgh has its own share of injuries, primarily on defense. Their best defenseman, Kris Letang, has missed the entire playoffs and the Pens have lost a number of others on defense because of injury as the playoffs have progressed. But the Pens just throw some guys on in their place who simply get the job done. Pittsburgh will get its offensive pest and goalmouth presence, Patric Hornqvist, back for this series which will just make Sydney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin even more dangerous than ever. It will be up to Nashville's solid defense led by Roman Josi and P.K. Subban to keep them in check.

In the playoffs, goaltending can be everything. But there is really nothing to choose from with the two goaltenders in this series. Pekka Rinne has probably been the Predators MVP, if not the entire playoff MVP, up until this point. His spectacular goaltending has stolen more than one game for Nashville and he really has just had one bad game the entire playoff run. Marc Andre Fleury provided great, but erratic, goaltending early on in the playoffs until starter Matt Murray could get healthy again. Murray has just been consistently good since his return, posting nearly a .946 save percentage, compared with Rinne's equally spectacular .941. Perhaps the only advantage here belongs to Rinne because of his phenomenal puck handling skills. In the prior series, the Ducks simply could not keep their dump-ins away from Rinne, who often made it easy for the Predator defense to avoid the forecheck and set up the break out.

Prediction: In the end, you have to score goals to actually win and, in that regard, the Pens have the advantage. They will only have to go to one overtime in Game 7. Pittsburgh in 7.