Detroit forward Pavel Datsyuk, left, and Pittsburgh's Jordan Staal battle during the 2008 Stanley Cup final. (Dave Sandford/Getty Images)

After all the off-season departures and signings, plus over eight months of hockey action, it has come back to this — the Detroit Red Wings against the Pittsburgh Penguins for Lord Stanley's Cup.

It will be the first rematch in the Stanley Cup final since the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers battled in 1983 and '84.

Game 1 is set for Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Saturday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7:30 p.m. ET).

Will the Penguins be able to emulate the Oilers, who learned a lesson and came back to avenge their defeat against the Islanders? Or will Detroit become the first to team to repeat as champions since, um, Detroit in 1998?

"A lot of guys, whether they were part of the team last year or guys who are new, we feel really fortunate to have this opportunity," Sidney Crosby told Hockey Night in Canada after Pittsburgh swept Carolina in the Eastern Conference final. "What we went through last year was tough, but we have got a chance here, and we want to make the most of it."

Here are five reasons why each team could prevail:

The Penguins

They won't get fooled again

The Penguins were schooled in the first two games of last year's final, failing to score a goal while giving up seven in return. They simply looked like the young team they were and could not penetrate Detroit's vaunted defensive zone coverage.

They battled back gamely, but winning four of the next five games was too tough a task.

Pittsburgh defenceman Brooks Orpik said that their feet are a little closer to the ground this time around.

"I think we were so new to it we didn't really know what to expect, and we were kind of just riding that wave of excitement," Orpik said.

"Going back to the finals [last year], we were down 2-0 before we knew it," he added. "I think this year we're a lot better prepared for it."

Pittsburgh returned to Joe Louis Arena for a game early this season and scored seven times. It might have been a relatively meaningless contest, especially for Detroit, but if nothing else the Penguins proved the building need not have some kind of hold over them.

The stars are aligned

Crosby is playing so well that he could be the front-runner for the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player in the playoffs, regardless of what happens in the final.

Crosby comes into the final riding a six-game point streak and has tallied a point in 12 of 14 playoff games. Only a couple of stupendous saves from Washington's Simeon Varlamov and Philadelphia goalie Martin Biron have prevented him from having 30 points before the final. He is on pace for the most productive playoff by any player in at least 13 years.

There's also every reason to believe that fellow superstar Evgeni Malkin will continue his playoff progression.

Two years ago, he looked fatigued in the first round of the playoffs. Last year, he seemed to tire in the fourth round against Detroit (although he appeared to get a second wind toward the end of the series).

It is important to point out that last year Malkin played 102 games overall, nearly twice the workload he ever endured playing in Russia.

Malkin had six goals and three assists in the four-game Eastern Conference final against Carolina, far above his level of production at the same juncture last year.

The new guys

The Penguins had difficulty replacing Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts at times this season, but the addition of Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz before the NHL trade deadline was an upgrade in terms of secondary scoring. Guerin and Kunitz have played better as the post-season has progressed and come in to the final with a combined 26 points.

Ruslan Fedotenko, meanwhile, seems to be trying to reprise the knack for scoring big playoff goals that he demonstrated in the 2004 Stanley Cup run for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Fedotenko has six goals, with Pittsburgh's record 6-0 in those games.

Maybe most importantly, coach Dan Bylsma appears to have his pulse on this team after taking over from Michel Therrien in February.

"He has been great for us, brought a great attitude, turned our game around and brought an up-tempo game," Crosby said of Bylsma.

Adversity on the journey

The Penguins fairly breezed into the 2008 final, racking up a 12-2 record.

This time around, the Flyers took the Penguins one game deeper than last year, and Pittsburgh was forced to battle back from a 2-0 hole in a seven-game set over the Washington Capitals.

Even the sweep against Carolina was hard-fought, with Pittsburgh trailing at some point in each game other than the opener.

Detroit wear and tear

Could the rigours of two long playoff runs start to take a toll on the Red Wings?

Every championship team has players who enjoy the champagne while limping around nursing significant injuries. But the Red Wings of last year did fairly well in the injury department, with Johan Franzen's six-game absence midway through the playoffs due to a concussion the most significant setback.

This time around, injuries have hit many key players on Detroit, and they seem to be adding up as the playoffs progress. Defencemen Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski and Jonathan Ericsson have missed time, while up front Pavel Datsyuk and Kris Draper have been out.

Ericsson was absent from Friday's workout as a precaution just days following surgery for acute appendicitis, but will play the series opener, while Datsyuk (foot injury) and Draper (groin) are questionable.

Lidstrom tested his undisclosed lower-body injury on Friday, skating alongside defence partner Brian Rafalski, and the Red Wings captain pronounced himself fit to play.

He missed two games of the Western Conference final, including Wednesday's series-clinching 2-1 overtime victory over Chicago in Game 5.

The Red Wings

Os-great

Technically, Chris Osgood's stats at this juncture aren't as great as they were last year. He allowed 20 goals in 12 games after three rounds in 2008 (Dominik Hasek started Detroit's first four playoff games), and this year has yielded 34 goals in 16 games.

But stats don't tell the whole story. He has been more impressive in this playoff campaign considering how mediocre he was throughout the season, as well as the injuries the Red Wings have encountered on the blue-line.

Osgood has gotten better each round as he goes for a third Stanley Cup win as a starter. After being barely tested by Columbus and inconsistently so by Anaheim, he faced more shots per game against the Blackhawks and enjoyed his strongest series.

"He was awesome," Daniel Cleary told HNIC after the series victory against Chicago. "He's really stepped up in the playoffs for us and we always knew he'd be there. He's a real gamer for us."

Look to Detroit's defeats to see how well Osgood is playing. The Red Wings have lost four times in the playoffs — two were in overtime and the other two were 2-1 losses. Osgood is giving his team a chance to win every game, which is all the talented skaters need.

Adversity on the journey

Detroit fought through a tougher series this year than on their run to the Cup in 2008, defeating Anaheim in a seven-game final that wasn't settled until late in the third period of the final match. The second game of the series with the Ducks went into three overtime periods.

In the Western Conference final last year, the Red Wings played a Dallas Stars team that had essentially played over eight games worth of hockey in the previous round due to overtime. Even so, Detroit needed six games to eliminate the Stars.

Eliminating a more rested, younger and more offensively dynamic Chicago team in five games this week seems to support the notion that the Red Wings are as strong as ever.

Joe Louis punch

It hasn't gotten easier for opponents at Joe Louis Arena in these playoffs. Detroit is 8-1 at home — the lone loss in overtime to Anaheim — following up on a regular-season home record that was second in the Western Conference only to San Jose.

Detroit will have home-ice advantage in the final for a second straight year. Again, the Penguins had a miserable time at the Joe in the first two games of last year's final, not scoring in the building until several minutes into Game 5 of the series.

The Hossa factor

Perhaps no player will be under greater scrutiny than Marian Hossa, who starred for the Penguins in last year's playoffs but opted to leave Pittsburgh and sign as a free agent with Detroit, where he perceived there was a greater likelihood for a championship.

It's hard to imagine that he won't be motivated to do everything he can on the ice to ensure he made the right choice.

Hossa's stats in these playoffs don't jump out due to a couple of droughts, but when he's hot, he's on fire. He has scored two goals in a game on three occasions, and has four multi-point games overall.

The depths

In addition to experience, the reason both teams are back again is that nearly ever player on their roster has scored at least one goal in the playoffs. While they have Crosby and Malkin, only the most ardent Penguins fan would argue that their team has more talent throughout the 20-player lineup than Detroit.

The Red Wings have five players with at least five goals, while Lidstrom and Jiri Hudler each have four. The list is even more impressive given that it doesn't include Datsyuk, Tomas Holmstrom and Valtteri Filppula, who are scoring goals below their regular rate.

Detroit averaged 33 shots per game against Pittsburgh in last year's final, with goalie Marc-Andre Fleury's awesome performance the only reason the Penguins weren't eliminated in Game 5.

Pittsburgh's defensive corps is not drastically different than last year's crew. It could even be argued that it is slower, with Ryan Whitney gone and Mark Eaton in. Philippe Boucher has been inserted to give the Penguins seven defencemen on occasion.

The Penguins blue-line will have to be better than last year if the defending champions are to be knocked off.