The Detroit Red Wings are headed to their fourth Stanley cup final in eleven years, which comes up to about a cup final appearance every 2.7 years. The Pittsburgh Penguins will make their first in 16 years. Sidney Crosby was not even 5 years old when now owner Mario Lemieux hoisted the big mug and the Conn Smythe Trophy for the second straight time.

The only common point between these teams besides their respective high octane offense, is that Scotty Bowman was behind the bench when both teams last won a Stanley Cup.

Scorring First

Detroit’s record when scoring first during these playoffs is 10-1, when trailing it’s 2-3. Pittsburgh has not lossed when they have scored first, and are even when trailing at 2-2. When leading after period 1, Detroit is 11-1, Pittsburgh is 7-0. Trailing after 1, Detroit is 0-1, Pittsburgh is 1-1.

Leading after two, Detroit is 11-0, Pittsburgh is 9-0. When trailing, Detroit is 0-3 and the Pens are 1-2.

No real advantage for either.

Face-offs

Advantage to Detroit, they are really good in the circle and it’s become their bread and butter. Detroit is at 55.7 % and Pittsburgh is at 46.7 %

Detroit has very good face-off guys in Draper and Zetterberg. Draper is at 63.4 and Zetterberg is at 57.9 %.

Jordan Staal has been the best for Pittsburgh so far in this run, but Crosby and the rest will have to step up their face-off skills to beat a very good Red Wings team.

Turnovers

As we saw in the Dallas-Detroit series, turnovers killed the Stars. Zetterberg and Datsyuk have 34 takeaways between the both of them. Pittsburgh is not too bad in that area either, as the Crosby line totals 40 takeaways, so beware Detroit.

I will say Detroit in 5

Finals Stats