Cup Final could be one for the ages

This year’s Stanley Cup Final has all the elements to be a truly spectacular series. I can’t wait.

It’s the first Original Six final since 1979 and the first time these two teams have met in any playoff matchup since the Bruins swept the Blackhawks in a ’78 quarter-final. Oddly, despite nearly 90 years in the league together, this is the first time these two clubs have met in a Final.

Because of the lockout Chicago and Boston did not meet this season – they haven’t played each other since October ’11 – so this is tough to handicap. Chicago should win – they were the best team in the NHL this year and Boston fell to fourth in the East – but the Bruins have been dominant since surviving a seven game Toronto Maple Leaf scare in the first round.

(Toronto fans, by the way, should be cheering for the Bruins, because Boston serves as the standard the Toronto organization is modeled after, a process begun with Brian Burke and continued – accelerated, even – by Dave Nonis.)

Boston can’t match the star quality the Hawks have up front in Jonathan Toews, Marion Hossa and Patrick Kane – at least on paper – but Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci have been lights out this post season. Krejci leads all scorers with 21 points and Bergeron has continued his habit of scoring clutch goals, breaking Toronto hearts with the Game 7 OT winner in the first round and scoring the double OT winner against Pittsburgh in Game 3 of the Conference Finals.

Kane’s three goals in the clinching game against the Pens may have tipped the scales back in Chicago’s favour – if he stays hot, of course – while Milan Lucic is the X Factor for Boston. If the Blackhawks want to win, they may not want to wake that bear up.

On defence the two teams match up well but there’s only one Zdeno Chara, and neutralizing the Bruin’s giant is a tough task for any team. (The Leafs had the best success in that category, but I’m not going down that ‘What If’ road.)

Both teams play tough and both teams can play dirty as well - special teams play may end up deciding this series - and Chicago has a number of players who have no qualms about employing the stick-in-the-face method (right Duncan Keith?) if that is what is required. But there is only one rat-faced bastard named Brad Marchand, and he will do his pesty best to get under the skin of stars like Toews and Kane.

In goal Corey Crawford has been very good for Chicago but Tuukka Rask has been out of this world. He stopped 134 of 136 shots in the sweep of Pittsburgh – that’s an incredible .985 save per centage – and his post season average this year is 1.75, with a .948 save per centage.

The more I break this down the more it looks like Boston has the edge.

So I’m picking Chicago in six.

Drop the puck already. This is going to be epic.