For the Philadelphia Flyers, the head of the snake is Evgeni Malkin. He can score the highlight reel goal, he can make the big plays as a playmaker and, because of his size, he is very difficult to knock off the puck.
That's going to put a lot of pressure on the Flyers' defence of Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn, Randy Jones and the wiley old veteran Derian Hatcher, who's been there and done that.
In the second round against the Montreal Canadiens, Hatcher was both an offensive and defensive factor. And he's working on one wheel. He's got a bad knee that has been drained on numerous occasions throughout the regular season.
He's playing through pain and it's gut-check time for him. But he's a presence out there and there's no question he will get in the kitchen of Malkin, Marian Hossa and Sidney Crosby.
Targetting the Blueline
Let's give credit where credit is due. The Dallas Stars have knocked off two higher seeds in the Western Conference playoffs thus far in Anaheim and San Jose. Clearly, the Stars are doing something right and that is being dominant physically.
They will target Detroit's blueline in a physical manner. As impossible as he is to connect with in terms of targetting, Nicklas Lidstrom will be targetted by the Stars physically.
The same applies to Brian Rafalski and Niklas Kronvall. If you don't hit Kronvall, he will hit you.
That's the mentality of the Stars have heading into the Western Conference Final but they have to able to maintain their discipline in doing it.