The 2017 Stanley Cup Final could be decided by 2 players who won’t play

It’s not difficult to figure out which names to focus on in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final. The Pittsburgh Penguins boast some of hockey’s top scorers in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Phil Kessel. The Nashville Predators rode an unmatched defense led by P.K. Subban and Roman Josi to the championship series.

The stars will be out, and we will be watching.

But on the way to a highly anticipated Final featuring some of the most popular players in the NHL, these two teams reminded us that nobody — even the victors — gets through the playoffs unscathed. The Penguins and Predators both remain daunting opponents entering Game 1 on Monday night (8 p.m. ET, NBC), but they’d be even more threatening if they each weren’t missing a star player.

So while the games will ultimately be won and lost by what the healthy guys can do with their opportunities over the next few weeks, as a result of injuries, each team has flaws that could be exposed.

Pittsburgh’s entire playoff run has come without its best defenseman. Kris Letang suffered a season-ending neck injury in early April that came with a lengthy recovery timetable. He’s expected to be ready for next season, but his absence meant the Penguins would leaning more than ever on their superlative forwards and goaltending to win.

That’s more or less what happened as the Penguins survived tough series against the Blue Jackets, Capitals, and Senators to reach their second straight Stanley Cup Final. Malkin, Crosby, and Kessel have been unstoppable, combining for 21 goals and 42 assists over 19 games. Marc-Andre Fleury was good until he wasn’t, then Matt Murray stepped back into his starting role without missing a beat.

It’s the only way the Penguins were going to win without Letang, whose injury meant their top four for the playoffs would be Olli Maatta, Ron Hainsey, Brian Dumoulin, and Justin Schultz. In fact, Pittsburgh is just scraping by at even strength this postseason with a minus-1 goal differential, per Natural Stat Trick. It’s on the power play, where Crosby and Kessel have combined for nine of the team’s 14 goals, that the Penguins are winning games. Their rate of 8.99 power play goals per 60 minutes more than doubles the Predators’ 4.32 PP goals per 60.

If anything, this playoff run might be the strongest example yet of how exceedingly brilliant Crosby and Malkin are. The Penguins are squeaking by largely on the strength of their goaltending and their special teams, which is so good because trying to stop Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, and Patric Hornqvist all at once is nearly impossible. The defense is costing them at even strength, but not enough to blow their chance at another Stanley Cup.

Especially when their opponent has an issue of its own.

The Predators’ defense should be ready to give Crosby and Malkin all they can handle, but their own major injury is going to make matching up with the Penguins up the middle almost impossible.

That’s because Nashville is presently trying to survive the devastating loss of Ryan Johansen, who spent the early chunk of this postseason dominating minutes against the likes of Jonathan Toews, Paul Stastny, and Ryan Kesler. The Predators managed to finish off the Ducks in the conference finals despite losing Johansen after Game 4 to injury, but they also haven’t faced a one-two punch of centers like Crosby and Malkin. Sorry, Kesler and Ryan Getzlaf — you’re great, but not on that level.

Before his injury, Johansen teamed up with Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson for a dominant No. 1 line. They posted a 57-percent 5-on-5 Corsi and outscored opponents, 13-3, in over 180 minutes together, per Natural Stat Trick. That was despite often taking on the opposing team’s best players. Nashville had a line that it could match up against anyone.

Without Johansen, the Predators appear to be trying to balance their lines to take advantage of matchups when Crosby and/or Malkin aren’t out there. If the defense and goalie Pekka Rinne can continue playing at an exceptionally high level, it’s a strategy that could win out for coach Peter Laviolette, who has done an impressive job of leading his team to this point. It’s also a concession, to a degree, that the Predators won’t be able to go line-for-line with the Penguins’ best forwards.

Colton Sissons, a 23-year-old who began the playoffs skating on the fourth line, is currently centering Nashville’s top line with Forsberg and Pontus Aberg. He has 10 points in 16 games this postseason, which is impressive considering he entered it with 20 points in 109 career regular season appearances.

Otherwise, the three centers are captain Mike Fisher (the only Predator with Cup Final experience), Calle Jarnkrok, and Vernon Fiddler. None of these guys are terrible players, but they’ve also combined for just five points in a combined 36 appearances this postseason. Fiddler has been scratched for half of the games. Again, these guys will often be tasked with stopping three players who had 63 points over the first three rounds. The Preds were able to hang on in a couple games against the Ducks to put away that series, but beating Pittsburgh four times might not be so easy.

To some degree, this is just how the NHL playoffs operate. Teams lose big names all the time as the bumps and bruises add up, or maybe those stars try to play through the injuries that we only hear about once they’re eliminated, like Joe Thornton playing four games with a torn ACL. Stanley Cups are often won by teams nursing major injuries that would leave us mere mortals bedridden for weeks. Injuries are, and will always be, part of the game.

Still, it’s hard not to look at the Predators’ centers similarly to the Penguins’ defensemen — whichever team loses, it’ll probably be the result of one of these shortcomings.