Ladies and gentlemen, we have a rematch to see who gets to skate around with the most beautiful trophy in all of sport. Will it be Nicklas Lidstrom winning a 5th Cup to match a jersey number that will soon hang in the rafters of Hockeytown, USA? Or will it be Sidney Crosby adding a championship to his resume sooner than Wayne Gretzky was able to (The Great One first hoisted the cup at 23, The Next One won't turn 23 until August 7, 2010)? We won't have to wait long, as NBC has forced the NHL to schedule back-to-back games over the weekend, a move that's sure to please the ailing Red Wings. Speaking of injuries, that's the first of our 5-pronged preview attack:

Injury Issues - Lidstrom is expected to be back in the lineup for Saturday's Game One after sitting out the last two games against Chicago with an oh-so-specific "lower-body injury". Pavel Datsyuk might not be as fortunate; Coach Mike Babcock has said that he will make a decision on the Hart trophy-finalist minutes before they drop the puck. Even though Detroit is the deepest team in the league, having those two studs out of the lineup or at less than 100% would be tough to overcome. As for Pittsburgh, the sweep of Carolina allowed Sergei Gonchar an extra day of rest to continue recovering from his knee injury. Although the power-play-specialist played over 20 minutes in three of the four Conference Finals games (and 19:30 in the other), the Penguins want him back around the 25 minutes he averaged during the regular season. Either way, Pittsburgh has fewer injury questions as the series starts up.

Between the Pipes - I refuse to count myself among the group who continue to doubt Chris Osgood. True, he has never been amongst the league's best goaltenders, but chiseling his name onto Lord Stanley's Cup for a FOURTH time (3rd as a starter) will solidify his Hall of Fame resume (there, I said it). However, Marc-Andre Fleury has been playing fantastic for Pittsburgh. After surrendering a goal on the first shot of Game 4 against Carolina, Fleury was often spectacular in recording a shutout over the remaining 58:24. No disrespect to the oft-disrespected Ozzie, but Pittsburgh has the advantage in net.

Star Power - This series has plenty of it. Alphabetically, Adams (Pittsburgh's Craig, bear with me), Chelios (yes, he's still playing), Crosby, Datsyuk, Gonchar, Fleury, Hossa, Lidstrom, Malkin, Osgood and Zetterberg are a nice A-Z of recognizable names to even casual hockey fans. And if you go by hardware, how's 1 Hart (Crosby), 9 Norris [Norrii?] (Lidstrom has 6, Chelios 3), 3 Lady Byngs (Datsyuk), 2 Selkes (Datsyuk and Draper), and a Lester Pearson (Crosby again)? I'm tired already and I didn't even get to this year's nominees. I'll go with Pittsburgh's two superstars (Crosby and Malkin) over Detroit's small galaxy.

Revenge Factor - An inexperienced Penguins team was shell-shocked 4-0 and 3-0 in the first two games in Detroit last time around, but managed to regroup to split the remaining 4 games with a combined score of 10-10. Sure, they still lost the series, but if Crosby, Malkin and Fleury were able to rebound like that at the age of 20, 21 and 23 respectively, just think what they've learned now that all three can discuss hard losses over a can of Iron City. Don't expect the Red Wings to be scared by revenge in the eyes of the Pittsburgh players, but Crosby and Co. will be able to feed off a little extra motivation.

Intangibles - Here's where the Red Wings have a decided edge. They have something like 150 Stanley Cup rings to shine in the eyes of their opponents. There is nothing Pittsburgh can throw at them that they haven't seen many times before. They also have the support of the rabid Hockeytown fans, better uniforms, octopi and beards. The Penguins have Crosby's wispy moustache, Marc-Andre Fleury's D'Artagnan impersonation and an Igloo that they've been trying to abandon for years. Pittsburgh does, however, have the ability to win this category as well. If anyone in the Penguins' front office is reading, I give you this idea free of charge: how about a blackout instead of the played-out whiteout for home games? Now I understand white t-shirts are cheaper, but how intimidating would it be for the visiting Wings to skate in front of a crowd dressed dark and scary instead of white and weak?

The Pick - Pittsburgh's Big 3 and hunger are enough to overcome Detroit's experience and facial hair.  Penguins in 7.