Stanley Cup Finals Preview

STANLEY CUP FINALS
Ottawa v. Anaheim

Let's start the Preview with how they got there. The Ottawa Senators finished the regular season red hot. They have dispatched the offenivsly loaded Pens, the defensivly loaded Devils, and the increadably deep Buffalo Sabres in 5 games each (12-3 overall in the playoffs). The Anaheim Ducks beat the suddenly offensivly dormant Minnesota Wild, the always offensivly dormant Vancouver Canucks, and the too old to go deep Detroit Red Wings. I don't know why the media are making the Anaheim Ducks the prohibitive favorites, the Senators 12-3 run is far more impressive.

The Senators we found out are as deep as the Sabres, this will prove valuable as the season goes on. The Anaheim Ducks are tough, they don't give much away, and Jean-Sebastein Guigure is playing like a goalie expecting a $7M/yr deal when he becomes a free agent this summer. Ottawa's Ray Emrey has seems to have improved as these playoffs go on, but he still gives away some adventurous rebounds, so far the D in front of him have been doing a great job of keeping them out of harms way, but the Ducks are tougher in front of the net than anyone the Sens have seen. Anaheim hits hard, and they play tougher defense than than anyone Ottawa has seen so far (New Jersey was capable of being this tough, but didn't show it at all against the Sens).
But Ottawa has more weapons and is capable of rolling 4 lines without giving up much talent, they are no slouches in their own end either, this is something Anaheim hasn't seen.
The question is will Ottawa continue to generate enough offense against the hard hitting Ducks, and can Emery help his team enough to keep them in close games.

This series will be a lot of back and forth, but I think it benefits the Sens the longer it goes.
I predict the Cup returns to Canada for the first time in 14 years.
Ottawa in 6.

NOTE: This was written before the start of game 1, but held out due to the closed ballot in our Stanley Cup playoff pool.