Red Wings (1) vs. Flames (8) Playoff Preview

Season series: Tied 2-2.

Team Records: Detroit 50-19-13, 113 pts.; Calgary 43-29-10, 96 pts

Offense: Known as a tough-checking team, the Flames added Alex Tanguay in the off-season to address their offensive woes. Tanguay, together with career years from Kristian Huselius and Daymond Langkow propelled the Flames to the 7th best offense in the league.

The Wings, for all of their firepower, struggled somewhat as they finished 10th in goals for, despite all of their star talent. The loss of Brendan Shanahan and the aging of Robert Lang and Kris Draper hindered the Wings somewhat, forcing them to acquire Todd Bertuzzi in a late-season trade. Bertuzzi, who had 4 points in 8 games with the Wings, remains the ultimate Wild Card in this series. If he can shake his current injury problems, and play with unusual vigour, the Wings could easily tilt the series in their favour.

Keep an eye on Pavel Datsyuk, who has just 3 goals and 15 points in 42 playoff tilts. Datsyuk has not responded well to the tight-checking of the NHL post-season, and could drag down his linemates with him if he doesn't shape up.

Defense: The secret to the Wings success was their air-tight defense, which allowed the fewest amount of shots against (24.6 a game). Mathieu Schneider and Nicklas Lidstrom are two of the very best, while the ancient Chris Chelios is still effective defensively as is the unheralded Danny Markov.

The Flames, thanks to a shift in strategy, fell to the bottom 10 of NHL teams in shots against. Their defense corps, led by blaster master Dion Phaneuf, is one of the best groups in terms of balance and depth, with the late-season of Brad Stuart helping bolster the Flames' transition game. Suffice it to say, the Flames, as a whole, are a lot more capable at preventing shots than their performance would indicate.

Goaltending: Dominik Hasek got a lot of press for coming back and getting 38 wins and an impressive 2.05 GAA at the age of 42, but people tend to forget that his save percentage was quite pedestrian at 91.3 SV%, which ranked 13th in the NHL and was one of the lowest of his career. Despite this, Hasek is usually money in the bank when the games matter most and has a lifetime 93.0 SV% in playoff games, although this number has decreased as he's gotten older.

Kiprusoff has been the rock for the Flames during his tenure there, but fell to 9th with a 91.7 SV% and seems a little more vulnerable this season. Kipper sports a lifetime 92.7 SV% and will be Calgary's best weapon.

Prediction: Flames in 7. The Wings PP woes (21st in the NHL) and offensive questions marks will likely prevent them from beating Kiprusoff and the Flames will knock off the Wings, sending Detroit home early again.