Regardless of the outcome, history will be made: the Pittsburgh Penguins look to become the first franchise to repeat as champions of the hockey world in 19 years, while the Nashville Predators look to win their very first Stanley Cup win, and also becoming the first 16th seed to do so. Both teams met twice during the regular season but split the series 1-1.
You can expect these Finals will not disappoint the hockey fans much like these entire playoffs haven’t. You have the Penguins that left us with that double overtime thriller in the Eastern Conference Finals game 7 to advance to the Finals. You have the Predators who barely squeaked into the playoffs, make an incredible and what seemed like an impossible task of calling themselves the Western Conference champions. They certainly let it be know that they deserved their position in the playoffs from the first puck drop in Chicago and sweeping the #1 seeded Blackhawks out of the playoffs in their first series.
Both teams have their advantages to winning this upcoming historic Cup Finals.
The Battle Upfront:
Nashville has been very resilient all playoff long, winning 12 of 16 games in dramatic fashion, without having to lose consecutively. However, their defense will be facing he of he biggest stars in the NHL, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, which could prove too much for the Predators considering they are going to be playing without their star center Ryan Johansen and quite possibly captain Mike Fisher who just rejoined the team in practice earlier this week.
The Battle Between the Pipes:
Of course no team makes it to the Stanley Cup Finals without solid goaltending. The Pittsburgh Penguins have themselves have quite the duo of goalies for them inside the net in Andre-Fleury and Murray. At the other end of the ice is the Predators’ Pekka Rinne, who has had quite a playoff with a goaltending best .941 save percentage. At this point, it looks like Rinne has the edge between the pipes being red hot going into the finals considering the Penguins have quite a duo at the goaltending position.
Defensive Advantage:
The Penguins have been plagued with injuries throughout the season. The Penguins saw 38 different players dress throughout the season including the playoffs. The Penguins will be starting the series down 3 defensemen Patric Hornqvist and Tom Kuhnhackl and Chad Ruhwedel, who do appear to be recovering quite well and look to rejoin the Penguins on the ice very soon, which would be great for the Penguins who will be facing a great offense in the Nashville Predators. Despite these three players being gone, the Penguin defense have been resilient all season long despite being knocked down plenty of times and getting right back up. They will certainly need that resiliency and physicality against a Predator team hat seem to score at will. The Predators have seemed to be consistent all playoff long, and they struggled being consistent during the regular season, but their defense showed up in the opening round against the Blackhawks, only allowing 3 goals the entire series, including 2 shutout victories.
This Stanley Cup Final has all the makings of being the best Stanley Cup Final in history. Expect this Final to be very fast paced, very defensive and physical with great goaltending on both sides. It seems that there is no room for error for both teams. Both teams seem evenly matched This will be a Finals nobody should miss, and I wouldn’t doubt that it goes 7 game. This will be a fantastic series that will not disappoint any hockey fan around the world. Prepare to witness a historic Finals no matter who holds probably the most difficult trophy to win in all of sports in Lord Stanley’s Cup.
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