Sens at Land’s End

Oh hey, I think I recognize this Cup Final. That’s … awesome.

Last year, I rooted for Detroit. I didn’t hate them the way I hated the Penguins at that point, but things change. In this year’s first round I watched the Wings beat out my second favourite team, and I developed a pretty strong rage against them. Seeing them lift the Cup again is right up there with seeing Sidney Crosby and the Penguins lift the Cup on my list of things I’d like to do.

This raises the question: who the heck do I even root for here? Which of these can be considered the lesser evil? I can’t really see any pros for either team, so I’ve broken it down into cons to try to determine which scenario is less objectionable.

Cons of Red Wings Winning

• Increased talk of dynasty from Wings fans and hockey commentators. Annoying.
• Boring. At least if the Pens win some new people (including Evgeni Malkin, and I do like him) get Cup rings.

Cons of Penguins Winning

• Crosbycrosbycrosbycrosbycrosby. It’ll get even worse, if that’s possible. Mitigating factor: hearing about how Crosby lost the Final two years in a row might end up being just as bad.
• Gloating from Pens fans, who are generally already pretty obnoxious.

Hmm. What to do. After thinking it through, I believe I have to (shudder) support the Penguins. The Crosby thing will continue to be irritating no matter what happens so I can’t give too much weight to that. It was funny watching Pens fans cry last year, but hey, they cried last year. Why not spread the wealth? It’ll be just as hilarious, perhaps even more so, to watch Wings fans cry this year.

Now, who do I actually think will win? I’m cautiously optimistic about the Penguins’ chances. The Wings appear to be losing parts all over the place. Nick Lidstrom will play tonight, but you have to wonder what kind of shape he’s in. Granted, even a Lidstrom at 50% is still pretty good, but he’s not quite Lidstrom and I don’t know that I think he can keep up with Crosby and Malkin. It’s all well and good to talk about the Wings’ depth at forward, but Pavel Datsyuk (who hasn’t been a factor these playoffs anyway) is hurt. Kris Draper is hurt. Marian Hossa has had only three or four good games this postseason. Tomas Holmstrom has been almost invisible and Henrik Zetterberg hasn’t exactly lit up the boxscores. There’s Johan Franzen and Dan Cleary and that’s about it. The Red Wings were almost taken out by the Ducks, a team with one hobbly line and lots of playoff experience. Put them up against the Penguins, who were there last year, who have started scoring in bushels, and who don’t seem to be suffering too much with injuries, and I’m not sure about their odds. Penguins in 6.