Music to listen to: Something to Believe In by Poison
This is the most difficult playoff series to predict, at least in the East.
On one side you have the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have been missing the best player in hockey (Sidney Crosby) and a top-10 player (Evgeni Malkin) for the majority of the second half of the season, yet still managed to post 106 points, only one point behind Washington for the best record in the East. They did it with a grinding style and the continued maturity of Marc-Andre Fleury.
On the other side, you have arguably the best offense in the NHL in Tampa led by powerhouse offensive forces such as Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis and even Vincent Lecavalier when he feels like it. However, the goaltending situation is interesting to say the least.
Keys to the series:
1) How much can we expect to see of Sidney Crosby?
I doubt that you will see much, if any, of Crosby in this series and probably for the entire playoffs for two reasons.
First, the Penguins have moved on and formed a borderline championship caliber team without him. That’s not to say that Crosby isn’t a valuable contributor to the team, he’s still the best player in hockey when healthy. However, the balanced scoring attack of Jordan Stall, Chris Kunitz and others is enough to get by a team like Tampa but maybe not much more. It would be very difficult for even Crosby to go from no skating to light skating a few weeks ago to the playoff condition in such a short amount of time.
As odd as this may sound to novice followers of the NHL, the Penguins may miss Malkin more than Crosby.
Second, if Crosby had a hurt knee like Malkin or a broken wrist, its a tangible injury with a set timetable to return. Head injuries are tougher to return from for a variety of reasons and I don’t think that you’re going to see Crosby or even the Penguins organization make a rash decision about their franchise player.
2) So, what about that Tampa goaltender situation?
Tampa was in a dire goaltending situation in the last two months of the year and took a flyer on 41-year-old Dwayne Rolson. All he did was win eight of his first 11 starts and has even ended the regular season with four out of five wins.
While Rolson isn’t going to win the individual matchup against Fleury, if he can avoid giving up bad goals and let the Tampa offense go to work, the Lightening may be in business.
3) Will this be Stamkos’ One Shining Moment
Taking a cue from the recently finished NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, will Stamkos’ emerge as the next great young star of the NHL with his first playoff series?
He will have the support of Hart Trophy candidate St. Louis, which will help but if Pittsburgh’s new dedication to defense can stuff out Stamkos, the Lightning may be in trouble.
4) Lecavalier
He reminds me of Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees in baseball. You look at Lecavalier’s physical skills and wonder why he isn’t in the discussion as the best player in hockey on an annual basis.
Like Rodriguez, Lecavalier has one championship but it seems like he got it in a supporting role like some criticize the Yankees’ third baseman in relation to Derek Jeter.
Shoot, if you asked 100 Lightning fans who their favorite player is, it would probably be an 80/20 split with St. Louis winning over Lecavalier, similar to Rodriguez and Jeter.
If Lecavalier can flex his offensive muscle, especially in the power play, than Tampa can make a major run in the playoffs.
Prediction: Pittsburgh in seven
I’m going to take the mantra of a good defense beats a good offense to another level because Tampa has the firepower to blow Pittsburgh off of the ice. However, between the advantage of goalkeeping, better coaching experience (Pittsburgh’s head coach Dan Bylsma has won a Stanley Cup with the Penguins while Tampa’s head coach Guy Boucher is coaching in his first playoff series as a rookie) and home-ice will help the Penguins prevail.
The Sports Inquirer 
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