This Stanley Cup Finals sure looks familiar—have we seen this match-up before? Well, sure, you can look back to last season when the grizzled Detroit Red Wings took care of the up-and-coming Penguins in six games. Pittsburgh’s young stars, Sydney Crosby and Evengi Malkin, got a taste of hockey’s biggest stage and are back for another kick at the can against the same veteran Detroit squad which is hoping to add another championship notch to their hockey headboard.
In order to predict the winner of the series, we’ll follow the wisdom of Original Six-raised (Boston Latin and Harvard) philosopher George Santayana’s, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This series shapes up as a repeat of the Oilers – Islanders Finals from 1983 and 1984.
The high-octane 1983 Edmonton Oilers were hockey’s New Kids On The Block in the ’83 Cup Finals and poised to knock the three-time defending champions from the throne. However, with the likes of playoff tested Billy Smith, Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies and Denis Potvin, the Islanders would have none of that and not only defeated the Oilers but swept them, surrendering only six goals in the four game series.
Fast forward one year to the 1984 Cup Finals and the same two combatants are back again, this time a rapidly aging Islanders team one year older and a maturing Oilers team one year wiser. The teams split the first two games in New York and then ventured west for three games in Edmonton. The series never returned to Long Island because the Oilers vanquished the honorable champs in three consecutive blowouts, thus ending the Islanders dynasty and beginning one for the Oilers.
Power Play thinks this year’s Finals shapes up in much the same manner. The Penguins should benefit greatly from their experience in last year’s Finals and use it as a springboard to leap-frog the venerable Red Wings this year.
Penguins in 6
{ 0 comments… add one now }