On other side, Hossa looking to hoist Cup

Imagine being Marian Hossa for the next couple weeks.

The Detroit Red Wings forward was a key trade deadline acquisition last season for the Pittsburgh Penguins, propelling them to the Stanley Cup Finals — against the Detroit Red Wings, to whom the Penguins lost.

Fast-forward a few weeks and you have that very same Marian Hossa fleeing the coop, getting off that iceberg and heading to Detroit — the organization that crushed his former team’s hopes and dreams. And what could be more crushing for Penguins fans than leaving that team, which offered a multiyear contract worth millions more than the Red Wings tendered, to go to Detroit for less money and for just one year?

The answer — seeing Hossa hoist the Stanley Cup in red and white.

Here we are once again with a Red Wings-Penguins Stanley Cup Finals series. If it’s true that the NBA can never get the finals matchup it desires, it’s also true that the NHL has the ability to align the stars and come up with the most tantalizing playoff matchups in all of sports.

The NHL had the fortune of an Original Six matchup for the Western Conference Finals; a Sidney Crosby vs. Alexander Ovechkin face-off in the second round of the Eastern Conference bracket; the No. 8-seed Anaheim Ducks upsetting the No. 1-seed and owner of the President’s Trophy, the San Jose Sharks, in the first round of the Western Conference bracket; and now, a rematch from last year’s riveting Stanley Cup Finals.

Needless to say, the states of Michigan and Pennsylvania will have their eyes glued on NBC and — sigh — Versus. It’s a marketing gold mine for the NHL, and no doubt commissioner Gary Bettman slept well last night. The game’s premiere players — minus Ovechkin, another marketing godsend — will be on center stage, and hopefully will get a little good luck going its way if the NBA’s coveted LeBron James versus Kobe Bryant showdown falls through (again).

But then there’s Hossa, another terrific storyline for the NHL. Will the team he abandoned exact revenge, spurring a rivalry that could last for years? Or will Hossa help the Red Wings fly past the Penguins en route to solidifying the greatest sports dynasty of the last quarter-century?

Sure, this Stanley Cup Finals series is a little bit of deja vu, but it has a twist.

And that twist is Hossa.