Posted By fever49

Here we are with only the Stars and Wings left standing in the west. We have the number one seed vs. the number five seed. This is a battle of the head against the heart. When using my head and reading the stat lines and viewing the season accomplishments one team has a clear advantage. When using my heart I see a team that competes with the best and could be the hottest team in the playoffs.

On paper this is how they match up. Goaltending is what everyone is talking about in this series. Inserting Osgood as the starter was a genius move. He is the only undefeated goaltender in the playoffs. He quietly dispatched the Avs with little effort. The surprise stat of the playoffs is that the Dallas Stars lead the playoffs with a 1.80 goals against average. Not that Detroit is too far behind at 2.09. But until Osgood can be beaten the goaltending edge goes to Detroit.

Since we are still living in the paper world lets look at four other key stats. During the regular season the Wings had 8 players with 40 or more points to only 4 for Dallas. Scoring 19 or more goals this season were 6 Wings and only 4 Stars. These last two stats are ugly for the Stars, so if you are a Dallas fan skip the rest of this paragraph. Players with a +/- over 20, Detroit 7, Dallas 3. Dallas only had one player, Brenden Morrow, with...

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