The Red Wings are finally healthy.
Sorry, Western Conference.
Detroit's 5-4 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks yesterday, which featured a five-goal Red Wing outburst in the second stanza, showed that the Wings are back - healthy, driven, and capable of causing one unlucky top-seeded Western Conference team some definite discomfort come first round in the playoffs.
(As a side note, could you imagine if San Jose draws Detroit in the first round? If that's the case, the "Hockey Gods" really are cruel.)
Remember when Nicklas Lidstrom had just 13 points in 37 games, and word was he lost a step? Well, he has 27 points over his last 28 contests, and is still an astounding plus 20 despite the Wings' injury troubles and the fact that he goes against the other teams' top lines, night after night.
Pavel Datsyuk has 18 points over his last 14 contests, and will only see his numbers continue to rise with the return of Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom. Heck, Datsyuk could go pointless for the remainder of the season and still be a force for the Wings due to his defensive prowess. We all know nobody makes watching defense as fun as Pavel does.
And there's one new, big plus for the Wings this season - they have a goaltender that has consistently played some great hockey. No offense to Chris Osgood, but his play over the past two seasons - which has seen the Wings in the Cup final both years - hails in comparison to the effort the Wings are receiving from Jimmy Howard.
The Wings can be fairly termed an "old" team, but don't let their age or position in the standings fool you - Detroit is a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
Let's put it this way - would you want your favorite team facing Detroit in a best-of-seven playoff series?
Didn't think so...
Remember last season when the Penguins sat on the outside looking in at the playoffs with 25 games to go, before going 18-3-4 down the stretch under Dan Bylsma?
Well, the Penguins might be better situated in the standings this time around, but they're certainly playing as if every game is a "must win."
Pittsburgh has strung together four straight wins since coming out of the Olympic break, and seem poised to send a message to the rest of the Eastern Conference heading into the playoffs.
As a collective team, the Penguins are hitting everything that moves (they set a record for hits an NHL regular season game against the Rangers on Thursday...and outshot them 55-16...boy, being a Rangers fan sucks right now.), and are getting contributions from up and down the lineup.
Evgeni Malkin, whose having a somewhat disappointing season point-wise by his standards, just recently had a 15-game point streak snapped. Jordan Staal has been arguably the best Pittsburgh forward coming out of the break, and has notched two goals and five points over his last four contests. Sidney Crosby has continued to lead the charge for the Pens, as he's recorded a point in each of the four post-Olympic Pens' games, and six in total.
The fact that Pittsburgh has at least one of Crosby, Malkin, or Staal on the ice at almost all times is what makes it so hard for me to see the Penguins losing to any Eastern Conference Team over a seven-game series...
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