-- The Penguins dressed seven defensemen again. That meant that their fourth line was based on Staal or Malkin rotating for a double shift between Satan and Adams. The Wings matched up strictly with the centers and didn't worry about the wingers. No matter who Malkin was out with, Filppula's line and Kronwall-Stuart were there. Zetterberg and Lidstrom-Rafalski were there with Crosby. And Helm's line matched up with Staal. That means that Detroit's fourth line was spotted in and ice time wasn't great.

That said, I'm curious to see how this plays out through the first four games. Can those horses -- both Pittsburgh's and Detroit's -- be ridden the same way on back-to-back nights? Can you do it three times in four nights? How about four in six?

-- Jordan Staal had a poor Game 1. He was obviously looking the wrong way on the Abdelkader goal, but he shouldn't even have been searching the rafters for the puck. He should have been tying up his man that close to the net. Other than that, Staal seemed disinterested.

-- I was very concerned early on about the turnovers. It took Lidstrom just 12 seconds to cough the puck up giving Pittsburgh a shot on goal. On the next shift, Kronwall did the same. Detroit had 10 turnovers in the first periods, but settled that down a little.

That trends seemed to follow Lidstrom's game. I thought Lidstrom had a subpar first period. Call it rust, but Lidstrom was back in form over the final two periods. He had a monster back-to-back PKs in the second, making several clears. I have no concerns about him the rest of the series as far as his injury altering his game.

-- Sign at JLA said "Let the crying begin" with tears drawn over a huge mug of Crosby. That was pretty clever. I can't get this out of my head ... if he's Sid the Kid, then to me, he's Sidney the Kidney. It makes no sense, but it makes me smile.

-- I don't know who's going to be the better goalie through the rest of this series, but Osgood clearly outplayed Fleury in Game 1. And in each of the first three rounds, I thought Detroit had the better goalie.

-- You could spend the entire game watching Zetterberg clamp down on Crosby. Wonderful battles. Z obviously takes this as a personal challenge.

When you watch them, it's obvious that Zetterberg looks to shut down Crosby first, then create any offense when a chance arises. Crosby looks at it the opposite.

-- I'm noticing more and more that the only passes that Ericsson seems to miss are his stretch passes, making mistakes that lead to icing more than turnovers. He's pretty automatic all other passes. I guess Ericsson is in that sense the opposite of Rafalski, who makes sensational stretch passes, but once every while will make a gaffe on a short one.

-- Maybe I've been spoiled by Helm, but how did he not pull away from Todd Gill on that partial breakaway? Helm made Scott Niedermayer look like he was carrying a piano. Hal Gill does carry a piano. Kudos to Gill on that play. Not a knock on Helm at all, who had another great performance. I also get the feeling that if Gill is on the ice with Helm as much tonight as he was last night, Helm is eventually going to pick his pocket.

-- Did anybody ever say what the rule is? Could Zetterberg put his hand over the puck when it was on Osgood's back? I'm not sure if that's officially in the crease. I don't think so.

-- Two shifts that were fun to watch in the third period ... Samuelsson, Helm and Maltby getting multiple chances with four minutes to play, pinning the Pens in deep ... the Wings keeping the puck in the Pens' zone with the empty net for 32 seconds. Yes, I clocked it.