ESPN NHL Playoffs 2008

GM David Poile and coach Barry Trotz turned what could have easily been a lost season into a memorable one for the Nashville Predators. Forced by outgoing owner Craig Leipold to strip down his team, Poile traded Tomas Vokoun to Florida, dealt the rights to Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timonen to Philadelphia and watched Paul Kariya and Peter Forsberg walk away as free agents before somehow cobbling together a team that snuck into the eighth spot in final days of the regular season.

Now, for all their heart and determination, the Preds are not going to go far in these playoffs. Never mind the Predators stayed close to the Red Wings during the regular season (3-3-2). And you can forget that the Wings hit a bit of a wobble in the second half, going 1-8-2 in February.

Dan Cleary has returned to the lineup after a broken jaw sidelined him for 19 games, Nicklas Lidstrom has returned to full form after missing a few games with what initially looked like a serious knee injury, Dominik Hasek appears to have put hip and other aches and pains behind him and the team has lost just once in regulation in its last nine games.

The Red Wings boast the top scoring team and power-play unit in the conference and the eighth-ranked penalty-killing unit in the league. That's a mouthful and it's too big for the plucky Preds to swallow.

1. The sweat box. Unheralded netminder Dan Ellis, who one night lost 13 pounds during a particularly sweaty game, has stopped all but five of the last 182 shots he's faced in his past five decisions (4-0-1). In his only other start, he was chased after giving up three goals on seven shots in a crucial game against St. Louis. And there's the challenge for the 27-year-old goalie, who will be playing in his first NHL playoff series. The only hope the Predators have of upsetting the Red Wings is for Ellis to stand on his head night after night. It seems like a lot to ask a young man who was originally penciled in as the team's No. 3 goalie at the start of the season and might have finished the season in the AHL if a snowstorm hadn't kept goaltending prospect Pekka Rinne from joining the team. Ellis will be backed up by Chris Mason, who couldn't hold onto the job. Unless Ellis can summon up more magic, the Preds' playoff season will be a short one.

2. The switch factor -- on/off/self-destruct. Two seasons ago, the Red Wings were Presidents' Trophy winners and still couldn't put away the eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers, who upset Detroit in six games. Last postseason, the Red Wings seemed to have learned their lesson and started the playoffs with a lot more emotion. Unless the Wings suffer collective-memory loss, they should be jazzed up to play the Predators. Having Cleary back in the lineup helps, as does the presence of Darren McCarty, whose ice time may increase as the playoffs progress. (He got his first point since rejoining the team late this season in Sunday's regular-season finale against Chicago.) He, along with Aaron Downey and Dallas Drake, may be asked to do a little more given the Preds will try and play an in-your-face style behind players like Jordin Tootoo and Scott Nichol. Either way, the Red Wings don't expect to cruise through the first round.

3. Nicked up. Both teams will hit the postseason with significant injuries and the ability to find players to fill those roles will tell much of the tale of this series. The Predators are without David Legwand, Martin Gelinas, Jed Ortmeyer and Steve Sullivan, who hasn't played this season due to chronic back problems. If Nashville can get timely scoring from Jerred Smithson, Rich Peverley and Jan Hlavac (13 points since coming over from Tampa at the trade deadline), it will take pressure off the top scoring group of Jason Arnott, J.P. Dumont and Alexander Radulov. The Red Wings will also look to different areas for depth up front. Tomas Kopecky is gone for the season (knee), veteran Kirk Maltby will likely miss some time early (hamstring), faceoff and penalty-killing specialist Kris Draper has been nursing a sore groin and Brad Stuart has been out with a broken finger. Tomas Holmstrom, a key part of the Wings' top line with Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, returned to action Sunday after missing 13 games (groin). Johan Franzen was especially hot in Holmstrom's absence with 15 goals in 15 games before Sunday. The Wings, who always seem to find a body or two to chip in at the right time, also just signed Michigan State forward Justin Abdelkader.

4. Baby blueliners. A season ago, we wondered whether the talented-but-youthful Predators blue line would be able to stand up to the San Jose Sharks' balanced attack. The answer turned out to be a resounding no as the Preds were dispatched in five games by the Sharks for the second straight year. Now, youngsters Shea Weber, Dan Hamhuis, Ryan Suter and Greg Zanon have been joined by Ville Koistinen, who filled in when Weber was hurt. Marek Zidlicky remains the offensive leader (43 points) and Greg de Vries, who won a Cup in Colorado back in the day, is there for stability. But if the Predators are going to contain the high-powered Red Wings, it will be because the young guns on the blue line have grown up enough to handle the challenge.

5. Home-ice advantage? We have been in Nashville for a home playoff game and, trust us, the Sommet Center can rock. But no discussion of the Predators and the playoffs would be complete without acknowledging that fan support continues to be an ongoing issue even with local ownership nullifying the threat of relocation for the time being. Local media outlets reported the Preds averaged just 13,145 in paid attendance through the team's first 36 home games. Two seasons ago, home playoff games did not sell out in a timely fashion and the team threatened to black out games on local television. Nothing would do more for the team and its future than to see the home barn filled for its dates against the Red Wings. If the Preds can't sell out, it will only reinforce what many believe -- that the Predators are living on borrowed time in Nashville.

• Nashville forecheckers vs. Detroit defense: The Red Wings are a puck-possession team blessed with all kinds of skill and speed. The best way to neutralize such a team is to keep the puck from them or make it painful to have it. The pressure, then, is on the Predators' forwards to disrupt the flow of the Wings' game by hammering away at Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall and Stuart. Of course, that's what teams have been trying to do against the Wings for a while, but that doesn't mean the Preds should stop trying.

• Red Wings: Datsyuk was held off the score sheet just three times in his last 18 games. Cleary had just two assists in his first six games back after recovering from a broken jaw.

• Predators: Dumont, cast off by the Buffalo Sabres a couple of years back, led the Predators in scoring and had 25 points in his last 24 games.

• The Wings just have too much of everything for the Predators to contain. This one will be mercifully short. Red Wings in five.

Scott Burnside is the NHL writer for ESPN.com.