Saturday May 30 is when the NHL’s 2009 Stanley Cup final will begin. Pittsburgh Penguins versus the Detroit Red Wings. There certainly are no shortage of stories available for this series either. Can Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin out play Detroit’s top stars? Are Detroit healthy? Can the Penguins take Hossa’s cup dream away? Many of these questions will start to be answers in just over 48 hours.
As always, here are the Stayclassy.net predictions for the Stanley Cup!
Stanley Cup Finals
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Detroit Red Wings
Burgundy: Pittsburgh in 7 games; In short, they are hot, healthy and jiving nicely. Finally, the Red Wings goaltending will be an issue. Nothing against Osgood, but I believe Marc-Andre Fleury will be a huge difference here. Also, I’m questioning Detroit’s health for stars like Datsyuk and Lidstrom.
Fantana: Pittsburgh in 6 games; Pittsburgh are a stronger and more poised team than they were last year. Factor in Malkin’s emergence as a true playoff star and the fact that Detroit are pretty banged up right now (Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Ericsson, Draper and even Hossa) and you come to the easy conclusion that this year is all about the March of the Penguins.
Mantooth: Pittsburgh in 6 games; Because I say so! And because the team is different this year, more mature, Billy G has been a great addition, Geno has found is groove, and Sid..well Sid is still playing great! Detroit has been playing very well, and being the defending champs, holds a lot of weight. But are the injuries going to hurt them? In one word, Yes! Is Ozzy that solid between the pipes? He is, but the Pens offense is connecting very well. The Truth is I have made some wrong calls in these playoffs, in fact I didn’t have either of these team in the final… I will let the winning captain (Which will be Sid), take my mother out for a nice seafood dinner in exchange for a picture with the Cup.
Tambland: Pittsburgh in 5 games; Please see my Open Letter to Marian Hossa to see why the Penguins will win this series. Bottom line: they’re healthier, faster, younger, learned from last year and have better goaltending. Plus they have the hockey gods on their side, as well as every media outlet in North America. I hate to say it, but I kind of want to see Crosby lift the Cup now.
Baxter: Pittsburgh in 6 games; What a difference a year makes. A stronger, more mature Pittsburgh team. Hungrier and knowing now what it takes to win. Malkin is just starting to peak. Crosby has been at his plateau since the start of the playoffs. Bill Guerin is looking ten years younger than he really is. Fleury is making the clutch saves when needed. Besides, there is always the Commercial:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnEY-4Ot6Ds]
Wow. There you have it, Stayclassy.net is definitely picking Pittsburgh to be 2009’s Stanley Cup winners. I wasn’t expecting that. Do you agree?
Stay classy, Stanley Cup finals.
Add SC.net on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Great post and I think you are all bang on. The Pens win the Cup and Sid continues to show who the “Real Deal” is.
I guess if the Pens don’t win, we need to start covering another sport… Water Polo?
I think it’s pretty safe to suggest that we don’t know what we’re talking about anymore if Pittsburgh loses. On the plus side, I bet we’d be the funniest, wittiest, dang-tootiniest water polo blog this side of the Internet.
I’ve already decided Stayclassy would be an online fishing blog, should we need to change expertises. And since the finals end in June, the timing makes sense too.
Chris: totally agree with you. Sid has really stepped up. I seriously think he should get consideration for captain of the 2010 Canadian Olympic team.
Love it Burgundy; I already have a cornucopia of “bass” and “pike” puns ready and waiting.
For instance:
“Wow, that fish sure kicked my bass. I don’t pike this at all.”
You can tune a guitar, but you can’t tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass.
Excellent feedback thus far. We may have to consider stayclassyfishing.net as an independent blog, even if we’re right on the Penguins/Red Wings series.
How about Football? There are arrests almost every week so that would generate hilarious posts. Besides if we’re wrong about the Penguins, we could still cheer for Pittsburgh and call ourselves the Steelheads.
I think obscurity is the way to go here. Like lawn bowling.
Or speed flossing?
Or Wooden shoe reviews?
So I’m out. You better hope for the sake of this blog that one of you is right.
LOL – I need the Pens to make a series out of things here… the final tally of predictions will be interesting. Coming soon!
Pengwins?………..Sid The Squid? Malkin? More like Malted Milq Toast
LOL – ouch! I’ve never actually heard Sid the Squid. That’s actually not that bad.