Here we go again. Penguins-Red Wings doing battle for the Cup for a second straight year. As a hockey fan, you have to love how this happened. These teams did amazing jobs in the playoffs and deserve their opportunity to win the Stanley Cup.

Let’s take a quick glance of these teams during the regular season:

The Penguins finished up 48-25-9 and fired Michel Therrien in February and replaced him with Dan Bylsma. From that point, the Pens were a top team in the East. The Wings finished 51-21-10 (as per usual) and were dominant all season long (as per usual).

The Penguins in the last 22 games of the season went 16-3-3. The Red Wings started the season 14-2-4.

The Penguins are healthier, with virtually no one injured — the Wings have Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom and Kris Draper all battling injuries.

The Wings have one thing the Pens don’t, or someone, and that is Marian Hossa. When these teams met last year in the Finals, Hossa was a Penguin, he chose to sign away with the Red Wings in July and will now wear red and white this year.

Veteran Chris Osgood (who should be in the hall-of-fame) and his 2.06 goals against in the playoffs once again prepares to win another Cup for the Wings. Marc-Andre Fleury will be between the pipes for the Penguins.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, doing their best Gretzky-Messier impersonation, have been dominant in the playoffs while Johan Franzen has been what he was last year — a goal scoring machine.

Another solid matchup — Bill Guerin VS. Henrik Zetterberg.

Should be a lot of fun.

My pick? NEVER PICK AGAINST THE WINGS!

Red Wings in 7.