Eastern Conference Final - Penguins vs. Flyers
There is no love lost in the Eastern Conference Final between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers.
Evgeni Malkin does not particularly dislike anyone in the National Hockey League, he has not been around long enough to, but he dislikes the Flyers. Maybe getting a skate in the head from Mike Richards back in mid-March has something to do with that.
The Flyers are going to go after Malkin, they will go after Sergei Gonchar and yes, they will go after Sidney Crosby; they will do everything they can to try and get under the skin of those players. They will also try and create traffic in front of Marc-Andre Fleury and the Penguins will try and do the same thing.
The Penguins also have grit in their line-up with wily old veteran Gary Roberts, Jarkko Ruutu and Ryan Malone.
This is going to be a battle from start to finish.
Western Conference Final - Red Wings vs. Stars
It always comes down to goaltending and you have two veteran goaltenders in the Western Conference Final in Chris Osgood for the Detroit Red Wings and Marty Turco for the Dallas Stars.
There is no reason to doubt the ability of Osgood, he did win two Stanley Cup Championships in the '90's with the Red Wings and that certainly puts any questions to rest.
But, what we have seen from Marty Turco thus far in the playoffs makes it appear that he is in the zone right now and that he is working with something special.
In Game 6 against the San Jose Sharks it was all about Marty Turco, he had crazy save after crazy save, after crazy save. There were 62 shots in Game 6 and he stopped 61 of them. It's almost like the game was in slow motion for him, everything that came near him he gobbled up.
You can't have a Conn Smythe discussion at this stage of the post season without including Turco as the leading candidate.
If the Dallas Stars are going to get to the Stanley Cup Final this season, it will be riding on the back of their goaltender.