The Red Wings and Penguins square off in a Stanley Cup rematch, sort of

Detroit Red Wings head coach doesn’t believe that there is such a thing as a Stanley Cup rematch.

“There is no such thing, the teams are different,” said Babcock when asked about Tuesday’s Stanley Cup rematch. “It will still be exciting, we haven’t seen them and they haven’t seen us. They bring in high-level talent with (Evgeni) Malkin, (Sidney) Crosby and (Marc-Andre) Fleury, so it’s going to be fun.”

Well he’s right, the Penguins certainly are different this season. While former Penguins Marian Hossa and Ty Conklin are the only two additions to the Red Wings roster this season, the Penguins also lost forwards Ryan Malone, Jarkko Ruutuu, Gary Roberts, and Georges Laraque during the summer. Further to that defensemen Ryan Whitney, Hal Gill and Sergei Gonchar are out of the lineup with injuries. In their place the Penguins have added forwards Ruslan Fedotenko, Miroslav Satan, and entirely new fourth line and on defense Mark Eaton and Alex Goligoski are filling in.

Babcock also doesn’t believe in the Stanley Cup hangover, or that a team can carry confidence and poise over from one year to the next. “People can say that you’ve been to the Stanley Cup final and won and that you’re so poised, but it’s an new year. You need to earn that confidence.”

The Wings for their part are earning that confidence as they have avoided the hangover, and although they know they can play better, they have started the season with a 9-2-2 record in their first 13 games, for 20 points, and are second in the Western Conference. The Penguins, with a retooled roster, are 8-4-2 through 14 games, for 18 points, and sixth in the Eastern Conference.

The matchup will feature some explosive offensive talent as Malkin leads the league in scoring with 22 points. Hossa is the top scorer among players who changed teams this summer with 17 points, and Crosby has 16 points. Not far behind are Brian Rafalski and Pavel Datsyuk with 13 points, and Henrik Zetterberg and Satan have 12 points each.

The likely line combinations and defense pairings for both teams are:

                     DETROIT RED WINGS

                    PITTSBURGH PENGUINS