Steinley Cup hinges on outcomes of pair of Game 7s

It has been a three-horse race for awhile now, but the next two nights will determine how many horses start the third round with a shot at the title.

MacMillan, Lowe and Graham - each one has a chance, but only if things go their respective ways.

Ange needs Detroit to take down Chicago.  It's that simple.  He already has four strong Penguins (Neal, Letang, Martin and Sutter) through to the next round, but he needs to advance his pair of wings (Datsyuk and Zetterberg), not for their offensive output, but for the damage a Blackhawks defeat would do to the rosters of Lowe and Graham.

On the other hand, Lowe must have Chicago prevail.  His Bruins (Marchand, Krejci, Seguin and Lucic) are a formidable bunch, but he needs to send Toews, Sharp and Bickell as deep as he can, especially given the fact that the Bruins will face the vaunted Penguins in round three.  The Pens should be favourites in that series and if Pittsburgh is victorious Lowe would have an empty roster heading into the final.  He does have a lone Shark in the form of Patrick Marleau, but a San Jose run to the Final doesn't favour the Big Man - S Graham has him boxed out in that department.

For S Graham, it all hinges on San Jose.  Can they put down the defending Stanley Cup Champ Los Angeles Kings tonight?  Graham does have one King (Kopitar), but his real strength lies in his pool of Sharks (Thornton, Couture, Pavelski and Boyle). If they go through to the next round, S Graham will be in good stead, especially if the Hawks also win.  He has Kane, Hossa and Stalberg, although the latter hasn't contributed much. A Sharks-Hawks third round series would ensure he has at least three scorers in the Stanley Cup Final.

One could argue that Aucoin, with Pens and Kings in the Final, could muster a comeback, but sitting more than 20 points behind right now, that will likely be too large a deficit to overcome.

So, who will it be?  Will Lowe be our 2013 Steinley Cup Champion as expected?  Or will MacMillan add a third title? Or could it be S Graham with his first Cup since winning back-to-back in '95 and '96?

We'll know which of these horses is going to be the best bet on Wednesday night.