For the first time in 25 years, two teams will play each other in the Stanley Cup Finals in back-to-back seasons.
That was not such a rarity when the Detroit Red Wings and only five other teams made up the NHL, but the Red Wings-Pittsburgh Penguins matchup is the league’s first rematch since Edmonton and the New York Islanders faced off from 1982-84.
Detroit will bid for its second consecutive Stanley Cup and fifth in the last 12 years, with Game 1 tonight at Joe Louis Arena. Detroit is the last NHL team to win back-to-back championships (1997 and 1998).
Columbus Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock, whose team was swept by Detroit in the first round of the playoffs, says the Wings will be tough to beat.
“They really don’t have any weakness,” Hitchcock said. “They have the puck so much of the time that it makes it very difficult to establish any kind of consistent game you might want to play against them. Because they have the puck so much, they dictate the play.”
Said former Avalanche coach Marc Crawford of the Red Wings: “They’re just one heck of a hockey club. Nobody’s been able to figure out a way to beat them the last couple of years.”
Sidney Crosby and the Penguins took the Wings to six games last spring before losing 3-2 in the clinching game at Mellon Arena. Marian Hossa nearly tied that game for Pittsburgh in the closing seconds, but now Hossa is playing for the Red Wings. He spurned a richer, longer-term offer from the Penguins and other teams to sign a one-year contract with Detroit, and figures to get a rude reception when the series shifts to Pittsburgh for Games 3 and 4.
Hossa is only the second player in NHL history to play for different teams in consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, with John MacMillan doing so for Toronto and Detroit in 1963-64. Wings backup goalie Ty Conklin played for Pittsburgh last season, but didn’t appear in the Finals.
Hossa isn’t worried about the loud boos he’ll surely receive in Pittsburgh.
“I have to make it not be a distraction,” Hossa told Detroit reporters. “I just have to make it help me and use it as an advantage.”
Pittsburgh’s young superstar forwards — Crosby and Evgeni Malkin — both have 28 points to lead all playoff scorers. Whether Pittsburgh has enough depth to match the Wings over a seven-game series could again be the deciding factor.
“They’ve won Cups, and we’ve yet to do that,” Crosby told Pittsburgh reporters. “So we still have some things to prove.”
Red Wings stars Nick Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk, who each missed the final two games of the Western Conference finals against Chicago with injuries, are expected to play in Game 1, Detroit coach Mike Babcock said.
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
