Mildly Bob. I have a ton of respect for the Wings franchise consistently having a winning product,

but its still hard for me to root for them. Then again I cant really cheer for Anaheim either... guess Id rather see the Wings go through.

I like how the West matchups ended up with the two younger teams squaring off, and the two veteran teams facing eachother.

Wings.Blackhawks in the West final would be amazing...

Crosby/Malkin v. Ovechkin/Semin/Backstrom should be entertaining as well..

Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk actually might be the best all-around player in the league. Top 5 in scoring, plus a finalist for the Selke (best defensive forward).

With Al's beloved Sharks now hung up to dry, the Wings are definitely the team to beat. I can see just about any two of these eight teams making it to the Finals, though.

"With Al's beloved Sharks now hung up to dry..."

I just wanna be clear that I dont love the Sharks. They just had a stacked team this year that should have made it to the cup final... And I put money on it... and I lost. 

But in no way am I emotionally connected to that team.

Also... if Ovechkin wants to play defense he can be pretty effective on the backcheck. And he can also layout some devastating hits.

I agree with OnlySon, as someone who lives in Toronto and doesn't get a chance to watch all the Red Wings games, from my limited expertise Datsyuk would appear to be the best all around player in the league. Zetterberg is his protegé, but Datsyuk's been doing it for a few years longer so I'd give the edge to him... The fact that two of the best choices are on the same team is insanity.

Also as a Torontonian, the "they're going to miss the playoffs every year for a while." comment hurts,, give them two seasons.. They're going to trade up in the draft, take Matt Duchene, and have a prospect who could pan out better than John Taveras..

Leafs=suck

Datsyuk only has a year up on Zetterberg, and his second or third year in the league he missed 3/4 of the season, so they're really more equal in that department.

Datsyuk is more durable.

Zetterberg's got back issues, those back injuries will wreak havok in the long run.

I'd take Datsyuk over Zetterberg if I was building a team.