Crosby, Malkin, Marian Hossa, Ryan Malone and Staal haven't been challenged yet by defensive pairings as good as Detroit's Lidstrom-Rafalski and Niklas Kronwall-Brad Stuart duos. But the Red Wings haven't seen lines as deep as Pittsburgh's, and coach Mike Babcock has the difficult choice of deciding whether Lidstrom is a better fit against the Malkin or Crosby lines.

"It's a great challenge going against him (Lidstrom),'' Crosby said. "Positionally, he's great and has a good stick and he's a big guy. Those are the little challenges within the game that make it fun. It's part of competing and I think we'll all tell you that we love to compete.''

The Red Wings have exceptional scorers in Henrik Zetterberg (11 goals, 21 points in 16 games) and Pavel Datsyuk (nine goals, 19 points). However, their offense has clearly missed Johan Franzen (concussion-like symptoms), who still leads the playoffs with 12 goals but hasn't played since Game 1 against Dallas.

Franzen's status for the finals remains uncertain, and without him the Red Wings were held to two goals or fewer in half of their six games against Dallas. That kind of scoring won't get it done against the Penguins, who have put up four or more goals nine times in their 12 playoff victories.

Pittsburgh, mostly because of Fleury's confident and composed play, also is allowing a playoff-low 1.86 goals per game.

"They've got an elite defenseman, but we have one, too (in Sergei Gonchar),'' Therrien said. "We've got a lot of speed and a threat coming from different lines, so if they want to concentrate on one line, we have other lines that can do some damage as well. They've got some quality players, some world class players, but we've got some, too. So I think it's going to be an exciting series.''

MORE FROM NHL

NHL Section Front

Crosby pointless again as Pens fall to Bruins Perron has hat trick, paces Blues' rout of Canucks Boyle's late goal lifts Sharks over Predators NHL GMs keep trapezoid, will discuss headshots Sabres F Mair clears waivers, to stay in Buffalo Breaking down the perfect NHL player Live odds Matchups/Injuries Vote: Who will win the Stanley Cup? Rotoworld: Latest NHL player news, rumors, more NHL Section Front   Add NHL headlines to your news reader: