For a change, I didn't get tripped up by the Dallas Stars in the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and thus went 2-0 in the conference finals, to get to 11-3 overall, with just the final left to pick. So far, I'm a combined 6-0 in series involving the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins; I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing going into Saturday's first game of the best-of-seven series.
I've seen Detroit live in these playoffs, and the Penguins only on television. There is always a temptation to select the team you follow especially when they've played as well as the Red Wings have thus far in the post-season. Up front, both teams have star forwards who can play a little defence, although Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk probably rank slightly ahead of Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby in that category at the moment (two years from now, it could be a different story). Detroit has lost only once at home in the post-season and wrapped up all three previous series on the road. On the strength of Detroit's greater experience on defence and in goal, I'll pick the Red Wings in six.
Last round: 2-0
Overall: 11-3
