The Stanley Cup finals are upon us and for the first time in history the Chicago Blackhawks will do battle with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Chicago is this generation's version of a dynasty winning the Stanley Cup in 2010 and 2013 and making the Conference finals a year ago before falling to the eventual champion Los Angeles Kings.

Tampa Bay won a Stanley Cup back in 2004 but had not won a playoff game since losing Game 7 of the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals. Now the team is looking like a strong candidate to win this year's cup.

But which side is the favorite?

Season Series

Chicago won the first meeting of the year back in November in a 3-2 overtime game. But Tampa Bay returned the favor with a 4-0 win at home in February.

Goalies

This is not a playoff meeting between premiere goalies. Ben Bishop has been steady with a .920 save percentage, but everyone saw him struggle at times in the Eastern Conference finals against the NY Rangers.

Meanwhile Corey Crawford lost his starting gig in the first round against Nashville before winning it back and holding onto it for the remainder of the run. He has a .919 save percentage but has given up three or more goals eight times in 14 playoff games. That said, he has won the Cup before, something Bishop has never managed to do.

Edge: Even

Defense

Two teams with tremendous defenseman, but if there is one man who has proven his worth in this post season it has to be Chicago's Duncan Keith. He leads all defenders in this postseason with 18 points, has been on the ice more often than any other player and has not looked fatigued in the least.

What will be interesting about this matchup is how the coaches use their defenders. Tampa Bay has been mostly using seven defenders throughout this postseason, giving the team a little more flexibility in taking down opposition forwards.

Chicago has been icing six defensemen, but playing its top four (Keith, Brent Seabrook, Johnny Oduya and Niklas Hjalmarsson) for over 20 minutes per game. It will be interesting to see if fatigue comes into play, especially with a speedy Lightning side that loves to amp up the tempo of the game.

Edge: Even

Forwards

On one side you have the Tampa Bay triplets (Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat) who have dominated this postseason with a combined 55 points and 28 goals.

Johnson leads the entire NHL postseason and is largely seen as the Con Smythe favorite at the start of the series. Lightning Captain Steven Stamkos was quiet early on but has a 14 points in his last 12 games after putting up just three points in the first eight.

Chicago has relied heavily on Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, with the latter two dominating Anaheim in the final games of the series. However, Chicago has 13 players with five or more points; Tampa has nine players with five or more points. Both teams have seven players with 10 or more points.

The Captain Toews likely lines up against the triplets while the second line of Chicago, which features Brad Richards and Marian Hossa, likely gets a crack at Stamkos' line.

Edge: Chicago's veteran presence wins the day here.

Statistics

According to War-on-Ice, Chicago has been a better possession side this postseason with 51.3 percent of shot attempts going their way throughout the postseason. Tampa Bay, meanwhile, has seen only 49 percent of attempts go their way throughout. That said, Chicago's combined save percentage and shooting percentage is at 101.3 whereas Tampa's is at 100.5, meaning that if one team is to regress, it will likely be Chicago.

Chicago's save percentage has been the difference here as both sides have had a shooting percentage of around 7.8.

Edge: Chicago

Special Teams

Tampa's power play has been clicking at 22 percent in the postseason while the penalty kill has been had an 81 percent efficiency. The PK was actually doing far better before it imploded against the Rangers in the Conference Finals, going 17-for-24 in seven games.

Meanwhile Chicago has held steady, scoring with the man advantage 19.6 percent of the time. The PK has also suffered stopping only 75.5 percent of the other team's advantages.

Edge: Tampa Bay

Prediction: Chicago has the experience, Tampa has the youth. It will be a chess match of styles with the Eastern Conference side looking to attack at will while Chicago looks to throttle its opponent.

Ultimately, experience wins out and Chicago takes it in six games.