To this point, there has been a lot that has been familiar in each playoff round for the Penguins.

They played teams they knew well -- Ottawa, a club they face four times a season and met in the postseason last year; the New York Rangers, one of those eight-times-a-season Atlantic Division foes; and Philadelphia, another division team and their biggest, most-despised rival.

They opened each round at home after finishing with the second seed in the Eastern Conference and watching the Flyers knock off top-seeded Montreal.

They put that home-ice advantage to good use, winning the first two games at Mellon Arena and going on to a 3-0 lead in each of the three rounds before winning in four, five and five games.

Now comes Detroit in the Stanley Cup final, which begins with Game 1 Saturday at Joe Louis Arena.

This will be different.

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Stanley Cup Final
Game One

• When: 8 p.m. Saturday
• Where: Detroit
• TV: Versus

PG video: Penguins prepare for the Red Wings

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"There was an advantage to knowing the other team, but, in the meantime, they don't know us that well. We don't know them that well, so I think they're going to concentrate on them and we're going to concentrate on us," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said yesterday, a day after the matchup was set when the Red Wings beat host Dallas, 4-1, to clinch the Western Conference final in Game 6.

The Penguins and Detroit did not meet in the regular season and have played each other just three times since the start of the 2003-04 season, a quirk of the unbalanced NHL scheduling that will be tweaked for next season.

But it means the Cup finalists will rely on what they've learned from watching each other on television and tape.

"We didn't play them much, but we have enough time to do our homework," Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar said. "The coaches are working on it. We're going to have enough time to prepare for them.

"That's the way it is -- the only way we can face them is in the finals. There's nothing we can do about that."

The Penguins watched the game Monday night, and many have watched the Red Wings other nights.

From that, and from reputation,, the Penguins are well aware of Detroit's tight defense, led by captain Niklas Lidstrom. And the potent offense led by Henrik Zetterberg, who is tied with the Sidney Crosby atop the playoff scoring race with 21 points. And the shutdown goaltending of Chris Osgood, whose 1.60 goals-against average is the best of the postseason.

"We didn't play all season, but we saw them enough," winger Georges Laraque said of the Red Wings who have been among the NHL's elite teams the past several seasons.

The Red Wings won the Presidents' Trophy as the best team in the regular season and home ice throughout the playoffs with 115 points. That means, for the first time this spring, the Penguins must open a series on the road.

Neither team has trailed by as much as one game this season.

"It's different," Laraque said of starting a series -- the most important one -- away from Mellon Arena, where the Penguins are 8-0 through the first three rounds.

"You like playing at home. We want to go to Detroit and win, hopefully, the first game."

The Red Wings are 7-1 at home, their only loss coming Saturday in Game 5 against the Stars.

Crosby said it all comes down to how you think about it.

"It's no different than when we've gone to the other places for the Games 3," he said. "You want to make sure you simplify things on the road. That's pretty typical anywhere you go, especially when two teams are probably going to be playing pretty tight hockey."

Besides the fresh opponent, the unknown and a road trip to start the series, Laraque senses another reason to look at this matchup from another angle.

"It's different because this is a huge test," he said. "In every round, people had reason to say something like Ottawa wasn't there, the Rangers never got it going, Philly was out of steam. But now we have the biggest test in the final.

"In terms of offense, defense, everything, we're meeting an opponent that is unbelievable. Detroit is really good, the biggest test so far. And we know that.

"We're going to have to be ready."

That's one thing that hasn't changed.