Ready for Lord Stanley’s Cup

It's finally my favorite time of year. No, not because it's finally baseball season; it's the race for Lord Stanley's Cup.

But as excited as I am for this part of the season, it also has me kind of worried.

The Pittsburgh Penguins face the Ottawa Senators in the opening round of the playoffs this year. As much as I want to tell you this is a blessing, I don't think I can.

The Senators have split wins this season with the Pens during regular season play. It means that the Senators have the capacity to knock out the defending champs in the first round.

The upside to this? The senators are without forward Alex Kovalev and defensemen Filip Kuba which will affect the play of the Senators.

On top of that, Sidney Crosby is on a hot streak with a career high 51 goals and 109 points, 15 of those coming in the last five games.

The return of Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin to the lineup gives Pens fans more hope to advance through the playoffs.

After the first round for the Penguins, things seem to get a little trickier. They would have to possibly face the Sabres, Devils and the Capitals before making it to the Stanley Cup finals.

The Pens have struggled against each of these teams this year and will have to be at the top of their game to defend their title as Stanley Cup champions.

Now for the rest of the first round action throughout the East and West Conferences:

The President's Trophy winners, the Capitals will face a tough Montreal team in the opening round which will be an amazing series to watch.

With Capitals star Nicklas Backstrom questionable because of illness, and star player Alex Ovechkin struggling to score, the Canadiens will give them all they can handle.

In the West, a favored team to win the conference, and the Stanley Cup, is the Chicago Blackhawks.

They face their conference rivals, the Nashville Predators, in the first round, which the Hawks are sure to breeze through.

The San Jose Sharks, which lost in the first round last year after placing first in the Western Conference is sure to be ready against the underdog Colorado Avalanche who have fought extremely hard to make it to a Western Conference playoff spot.

Needless to say the playoffs this year will be exciting. There are bound to be rematches of some exciting series from last year's playoffs but with more hostility and resentment between the two teams.

Michael Spurlock can be contacted at spurlock36@marshall.edu.