Can Sidney Crosby and the Powerhouse Penguins Be Stopped?

The second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs wrapped up last night in San Jose, with the Sharks demolishing the Predators, 5-0, to advance to the Western Conference finals. And unlike recent years, the NHL isn't going to kill the momentum by taking a few days off. We're right back at it tonight, with the Eastern Conference finals kicking off in Pittsburgh.

We've got an interesting final four this year, one that doesn't include any division winners, Canadian entries or Original Six teams. Let's see if we can sort it all out.

With the Presidents' Trophy winning Capitals knocked out, we're left with a pair of No. 2 seeds squaring off in a conference final that has no shortage of star power.

In this corner: The Lightning (46-31-5, +26) are looking to return to the Stanley Cup final for the second straight year.

The road so far: They've had by far the easiest path to the conference final, facing Detroit and the Islanders, who finished 15th and 10th overall, respectively. But you can only beat the teams that the brackets serve up, and the Lightning have done it with ease, needing just ten games to finish off the two series.

Injury report: Two key contributors, Steven Stamkos and Anton Stralman, have both missed the entire playoffs but could be back at some point. Stralman broke his leg in March and seems like he's on the verge of returning. Stamkos is trickier; he needed surgery after being diagnosed with a blood clot, and can't return until he's off blood thinners. That might happen any day now; it also might not happen before the playoffs are over.

One player to watch: Victor Hedman. When a team is rolling as well as the Lightning, there are plenty of players you could shine a spotlight on. Nikita Kucherov is filling the net, Tyler Johnson has been fantastic, Ben Bishop looks great and Jonathan Drouin is writing a nice little comeback story. But Hedman may be the key to the series. When he's at his best, he belongs in the top tier of NHL defensemen, right next to guys like Drew Doughty and Duncan Keith. And he was at this best against the Islanders, racking up four goals and eight points in five games while helping to keep John Tavares off the scoresheet after the opener. He'll have his work cut out against Sidney Crosby and friends, but if he's up to the job, he can change the course of a series on his own.

Key number: 57.3—Percentage of scoring chances that the Lightning owned this year when Stralman was on the ice, making him one of just six defensemen with over 1,000 even-strength minutes to be over 57 percent. That's a better mark than Kris Letang (56.8), Brent Burns (55.3), Shea Weber (54.1) or Keith (52.8). Again, Tampa has gone 8-2 in the first two rounds without him in the lineup. If and when he comes back, the Lightning blueline gets downright scary.

Dominant narrative: Redemption. The Lightning have been here before, going to last year's Cup final before losing the Blackhawks in six. Now they're back, and with the offense clicking and Stralman and Stamkos on the way back, they may be even better than last year's team. Still, they'll go into this series as underdogs, and with the lingering whispers that they haven't really beaten anyone to get here. They're not quite a "nobody believed in us" story, but they're not getting as much respect as a reigning conference champion typically would.

And in this corner: The Pittsburgh Penguins (46-26-8, +42), the league's hottest team over the second half.

The road so far: The Penguins had a relatively easy time with the Rangers in round one, knocking them off in five games. The powerhouse Capitals proved tougher, but Tuesday's Game 6 overtime winner by Nick Bonino sent them home, too.

Injury report: Olli Maatta returned to action Tuesday, so all the key players are available. That includes Marc-Andre Fleury, who's recovered from a concussion and is cleared to play, but has (so far) stayed in a backup role to rookie Matt Murray.

One player to watch: Patric Hornqvist. He can get lost among all the other big names in Pittsburgh, but Hornqvist leads the team in postseason goals with five, including the OT winner in Game 4 against Washington. He's been consistently productive over the years, scoring at least 20 goals in each of his last six full seasons. More importantly, his willingness to win battles and go to the net has made him a good fit on Crosby's wing, which hasn't always been easy to find in Pittsburgh. His continued production is no sure thing—this is the first time in his career he's put up decent numbers in the postseason, and he was benched in the third period of Game 5. If he falters, the Pens may have to move one of the bigger names up to the first line, which hurts their ability to roll three dangerous scoring units.

Key number: -10:56—The Penguins special teams differential in this year's playoffs, meaning they've spent almost 11 more minutes on the penalty kill than on the powerplay—the worst mark in the league. I mainly mention this in the desperate hope that everyone will shut up with their "the refs want the Penguins to win" conspiracy theories.

Dominant narrative: Murray vs. Fleury. Murray's been fantastic, posting a .935 save percentage and single-handedlywinning games. But Fleury is the veteran with the Cup ring, and there have already been calls for Mike Sullivan to make the switch. He didn't, and it paid off. But how much rope will the kid get? The Lightning can make any goalie look bad; how many tough nights can Murray afford to have and still make it all the way through the series? And is that number higher than "one"?

The big question: How much firepower do we get? We know the Penguins have plenty of it; their 245 regular-season goals ranked third. Tampa Bay was well down that list, but its been lighting it up in the playoffs. Both these teams also know how to shut things down, finishing in the top six in goals allowed, so maybe we end up with a defensive battle. But here's hoping they let the stars do their thing.

Old YouTube clip to get you the opposite of fired up: The two teams play a Game 7 during the 2011 playoffs, and give us… a terribly dull 1-0 game.

Seriously, if this series ends up looking anything like this, just shut down the NHL.

Prediction: Penguins in six.

Bonus prediction that is oddly specific: The "Steven Stamkos is about to make a stunning return" story fires up after Game 2.

After years of domination by the Kings and Blackhawks, early exits left the West wide open for a new team to stake its claim. That's left us with two teams we're not used to seeing this deep in the postseason.

In this corner: The St. Louis Blues (49-24-9, +22), who emerge from the second round as the top seed of the remaining teams and will have home ice the rest of the way.

The road so far: They knocked off the defending champion Blackhawks and the top-seeded Stars, both in seven games. No biggie.

Injury report: After two straight seven-game series, they have to be beaten up. But the actual injury report is empty.

One player to watch: Alexander Steen. Vladimir Tarasenko is the megastar, David Backes is the big-moment guy, and Robby Fabbri is the fun rookie. But Steen is as important as any Blue forward, if not more—Ken Hitchcock has called him the team's best player. He's the sort of two-way center that contenders need, a guy who can take the tough ice time against the opponent's best line while still chipping in offensively. Some nights, he's all over the highlights. Most nights, you barely notice him. But when he's going up against the league's best, not noticing him is a pretty good result.

Key number: Eight—Consecutive playoff series in which Troy Brouwer's team has gone seven games, dating back to his time with the Blackhawks and Capitals. This stat means absolutely nothing and has no predictive value whatsoever, but it's cool and seems vaguely ridiculous.

Dominant narrative: After decades of falling short, is this finally the Blues' year? They've never won a Stanley Cup Final game in their 49-year history. For much of that time, the Blues have been among the league's most forgettable teams. Always solid, never truly a trainwreck, just a perfectly serviceable team that was always long gone by crunch time. This is starting to feel like it could finally, mercifully be the year that that changes.

And in this corner: The San Jose Sharks (46-30-6), returning to the conference final less than two years after GM Doug Wilson vowed to rebuild them (and then didn't).

The road so far: They faced the Kings in a series we all thought would go long, and won quickly. Then they faced the Predators in a series that we all thought would be easier, and they needed seven. We're all dumb, is what I'm trying to say.

Injury report: No major names. Has there have been a conference final series where everyone is healthy? Did we forget to turn injuries on before we started simming? This is weird.

One player to watch: Logan Couture. This playoff run has been the Joe Thornton/Patrick Marleau redemption tour, and rightly so—those two have taken so much grief over the years in San Jose that they deserve some positive payback. But let's not lose sight of the fact that Couture has been the team's most productive forward. It's not a torch-passing; that's already happened, with Couture, Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns being the key guys for a while now. But coming off a disappointing 36-point season, it's nice to see Couture reassert himself as a top-tier forward.

Key number: 0.84—Joe Thornton's points-per-game average in the playoffs during the salary cap era, ranking him 15th among players with 50-plus games. He's tied with Pavel Datsyuk, just a hair behind Jonathan Toews and Anze Kopitar, and ahead of guys like Jarome Iginla, Marian Hossa and Corey Perry. Can we please let the whole "Thornton doesn't produce in the playoffs" storyline die?

Dominant narrative: After decades of falling short, is this finally the Sharks' year? They've never been to a Stanley Cup Final in their 26-year history, and… wait a second, this is sounding familiar. Yes, the Blues and Sharks are probably the two undisputed champions of the NHL's playoff underachievers club (non-Capitals division), and one of them is going to the final. That's going to be kind of fun… and heartbreaking for whichever team loses.

The big question: Which Brian Elliott do we get? The Blues' goalie has had a shaky history in the postseason, but he's been fantastic this year—right up until Monday's Game 6, when he was pulled in the first period. That led to speculation that Hitchcock might turn to Jake Allen for Game 7. He didn't, and Elliott looked great. So he's the starter, and at his best he could give the Blues an edge over Martin Jones and the Sharks. But for the first time this postseason, he's shown some cracks.

Old YouTube clip to get you fired up: Don't look at me like that, Blues fans, you knew what this was going to be before you even started scrolling.

Prediction: Blues in seven.

Bonus prediction that is oddly specific: It's about time Backes brought back that thing where he randomly ends up fighting a Canadian for no reason. I'm going to go with Marc-Edouard Vlasic.