Preview: Penguins vs Hurricanes 2009

Records

Pittsburgh (4): 45-28-9 (99 pts) Home: 25-13-3 Away: 20-15-6
Carolina (6): 45-30-7 (97 pts) Home: 26-14-1 Away: 19-16-6

How They Got Here

Pittsburgh beat rival Philadelphia in 6 and Washington in 7.
Carolina upset New Jersey and Boston in 7 games.

Head-to-Head

Oct 23, 2008 – PIT 4 CAR 1
Dec 4, 2008 – PIT 5 CAR 2
Jan 20, 2009 – PIT 1 CAR 2
Apr 4, 2009 – PIT 2 CAR 3 (OT)
The season series was tied 2-2.

Fights

Oct 23, 2008 – Paul Bissonnette vs Dan LaCouture
Oct 23, 2008 – Eric Godard vs Wade Brookbank

Lineup

Goaltending: EDGE Carolina
Scoring: EDGE Pittsburgh
Defense: DRAW
Coaching: EDGE Carolina
Grit: DRAW

Schedule

Monday, May 18 at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, TSN, RDS
Thursday, May 21 at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, TSN, RDS
Saturday, May 23 at Carolina, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS
Tuesday, May 26 at Carolina, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS
* Friday, May 29 at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS
* Sunday, May 31 at Carolina, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS
* Tuesday, June 2 at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS

Prediction

Two teams who have peaked at the right time, Pittsburgh and Carolina will meet in the Conference Finals after disposing of the division champs. The Pens are getting huge contributions from their superstars while the Hurricanes won with clutch scoring, goaltending and pretty much everything else. I can’t see the Hurricanes shutting down Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, who will lead Pittsburgh to a second straight Cup Finals appearance in 6 games.

David’s Pick

Carolina has shown it can hang with any team in the league right now, but despite knocking off the top-seeded Bruins, the Canes still haven’t faced a team with top-stacked talent like the Penguins. The Bruins might have scored more throughout the course of the 2008-09 season, but they don’t have a 1-2 punch like Crosy and Malkin. Bill Guerin has proven to be a great deadline acquisition for the Pens, but this series will come down to Cam Ward stopping the big guns of the Pens. If Ward can do that, not only will Eric Staal and Ray Whitney need to keep up their scoring ways, but Jussi Jokinen will also have to continue proving he can score somewhere other than the shootout. The Canes will do a good job keeping up, but the Pens will put them away in a tiring 6.