The Stanley cup finals will commence Saturday night after taking a few nights off out of the sporting world spotlight. The Detroit Red Wings advance to the finals for the 23rd time in the storied franchise’s history while the upstart Pittsburgh Penguins return for the first time since winning it all in 1992. In fact the last time the Pens were in it, their star player Sidney Crosby was five.

Let’s break down how they got here. The Red Wings got past the Nashville Predators in the first round, and then made surprisingly quick work of the Colorado Avalanche sweeping them in four games. Then it was on to the conference finals where they met up with the Dallas Stars. Most people thought the series would be a knock down drag out fight, but the series was over in six games with 35 year old goaltender Chris Osgood winning every game; allowing a little more than a goal a game.

The Pittsburgh Penguins got to the finals in similar fashion. After dumping Ottawa in four games and blasting the New York Rangers in five, that set up an interstate final with rival Philadelphia. Well it didn’t turn out to be much of an eastern final as the Pens dismissed their rivals to the east in five games. Marian Hossa who came over to Pittsburgh at the trade line was unbelievable in the last game as he had a goal and three assists to cap off a 6-0 rout & Sidney Crosby is really lighting it up with 17 assists in 14 games.

All of the pundits are predicting the savvy Red Wings will hoist the cup when it’s all said and done and that might not be to far off, but I’m going with youth and speed and predicting the fast paced Penguins will win the cup in a seven game shocker. I do know that NBC is probably most excited about the match up as this series has tons of star power.