from Michael Russo of the Star Trbune,

Frankly, it’s amazing how a franchise can possibly lose defenseman Ryan Suter to free agency, then ultimately trade young, up-and-coming defenseman Seth Jones and captain and stalwart defenseman Shea Weber and still end up in the Stanley Cup Final … by possessing one of the NHL’s best blue lines led by top-four Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm.

“It’s a unique challenge,” Sidney Crosby said as the Penguins begin a repeat bid Monday against the Nashville Predators and their back-end quartet. “When you’re thinking about playing teams, you’re talking about usually forwards, snipers. You don’t usually think of a group of defensemen as guys that finish as well as they do. Usually one, maybe two guys do that in a D-corps. They have the luxury of having a number of them.”

Crosby’s superstar sidekick Evgeni Malkin, fresh off playing Ottawa Senators star defenseman Erik Karlsson, was more direct.

“It’ll be the hardest challenge of my life,” said Malkin, who leads the NHL with 24 points in the playoffs. “I’ve never played a team who have six good defensemen. Usually, [a team has] like one Karlsson. Here, [they have] like four Karlssons. It’s a good challenge for me, for Sid, for Phil [Kessel]. We’ll see who’s better. I’m ready to play. I’m excited. I know it’s not easy. I know it’ll be hard.”

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