The NHL Conference Finals are set, and were in for some great action.

Personally, I would have preferred to see San Jose and Anaheim go at it in the Western Conference, but Anaheim and Detroit should be a great series. You have two premier forwards in Datsyuk and Zetterberg going up against Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer, the most imposing blueline duo the league has seen in a while. Nicklas Lidstrom is no slouch patrolling Detroit's defensive zone and the Red Wings have stepped up their game defensively to help compensate for the loss of Mathieu Schneider who is out for the rest of the playoffs with a wrist injury. Both teams have been scoring by committee, and while Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Selanne are the obvious big names up front there are plenty of supporting characters who could be difference makers in this series- guys like Tomas Holstrom and Mikael Samuelsson for Detroit and Ryan Getzlaf, Andy MacDonald and Dustin Penner for the Ducks.

And then you have Giguere versus Hasek between the pipes. In my eyes this is where the difference lies, and my money is on the netminder with a Conn Smyth Trophy on his mantle. With all of the hardware Dominik Hasek has picked up over the years, that's one award that has eluded him. Detroit won't win this series unless Hasek is an all-world goalie. If he can pull it off the Wings will go on to win the Cup.

I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of this though:

Over here in the East we're in for a real treat. Buffalo versus Ottawa. Two teams that have butted heads all season long and who faced each other in the playoffs last season, with Buffalo taking the series 4-1. Ottawa is looking for redemption, and they had a relatively easy time with Pittsburgh and New Jersey. Buffalo is the automatic favorite as the top seed and the team with the best record in the entire league during the regular season, but things seem to be going Ottawa's way. While Buffalo's offense struggled at times against the Rangers, the Senators have had little trouble finding the back of the net, and their stars are producing. Has there been a better line in the this post-season than Spezza, Alfredsson and Heatley? I don't know if Buffalo can stop them, which means the Sabres will have to straight-up outscore them. Good luck. Ray Emery may be wildly inconsistent in the regular season, but from what I've seen he's been better than Ryan Miller so far in these playoffs. Buffalo is coming off a tough series in which they struggles to score. Ottawa has hot offense and, more importantly, a hot goalie. I think the Sabres' fate will be determined by Miller and Captain America- Chris Drury. If those two don't manage to have career games each and every night the Sens are going to take this one.

So that's how I see it. How about you?