The Red Wings pretty much played to form in the first round, pushed by Nashville, but finding a way to prevail. They looked good, not great and battled through terrific Nashville goaltending. In the end the likes of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski fueled the offence, but their depth proved to be significant, too. Their penalty killing was excellent and while Dominik Hasek struggled, they still had a Stanley Cup winner to turn to in Chris Osgood to get the job done. Again, good depth. Niklas Kronwall had a good series and was a physical presence.

This certainly wouldn't have been said a year ago, but goaltender Jose Theodore is a definitive strength. He was nothing short of brilliant in the first round against Minnesota and had to be. The likes of Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Milan Hejduk up front, along with Andrew Brunette and Wojtek Wolski were stellar against the Wild. Adam Foote and Ruslan Salei and Kurt Sauer were great at the back end. Foote, especially, was the shutdown guy, consistently frustrating Marian Gaborik. Even though they gave up a lot of shots and chances, the fact that the Avalanche were able to shut down the Wild's big gunners was encouraging. The penalty killing was also good.