PACE

This Western Conference Final can be boiled down to a battle of hockey sense and pace of play, and through three games it doesn't appear to be much of a contest.

The Red Wings brass have assembled a collection of players that think the game at an accelerated level. The Red Wings coaching staff have pushed and prodded these smarty pants to do what they do at full speed.

They practice smart and with tempo, and they play how they practice.

The result is a very, very good Red Wing team.

The Stars have a good team. Its a team that gets its edge from tenacity. Its a team that relies heavily on its powerplay for offense. It is a team that needs its goalie to be the factor that tips the game in its favor.

Fast and bright is trumping hard and hermetic.

Thes Wings are harvesting the crop they sowed months ago.

The Stars are plowing water.

All is not lost however (Including the series…yet). This spring the Stars have exorcised some playoff demons by forcing their way into the Final Four, and with that comes the same injection of growth hormone that the Red Wings young players were shot-up with a year ago when they reached the Conference Final before bowing out at the hands of the eventual Cup winning Ducks.

The playoff experiences of 2008 will no doubt accelerate the development of the Stars young players -- players like Grossman, Niskanen, Fistric and Eriksson, and it will help boost the teams overall progression. After all, experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.

What they don't want now is to be swept off their skates at AAC Wednesday.