The Ice Sheet: Defense Optional - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

It became evident very quickly Friday night that the coaches in the Eastern Conference Finals had some work to do.

Yes, both teams were scoring and creating chances. Neither team, however, was playing much defense. The goalies were tested more than usual, and the action was exciting.

In the end, Pittsburgh was the team that got their defense going first. They held Philadelphia off the board through the last two periods of a 4-2 Game One win.

Petr Sykora set the early tone, getting open in front and making a great move on Martin Biron for the game's first goal. Mike Richards scored two in a row for the Flyers, before a Biron turnover led to a goal by Sidney Crosby to tie it for Pittsburgh. Late in the first, Evgeni Malkin held the puck in the Philadelphia zone by a hair, skated in, and wristed a shot past Biron, giving the Penguins a 3-2 lead after one.

Malkin added a short-handed goal in the second period to make it 4-2 before things finally settled down. Of course, that wasn't good news for Philadelphia, since they had to make up a two-goal deficit.

(Still to come: More on Flyers-Penguins Game One, the Stars try to rebound, and we'll dig something up from YouTube. You'll then have to judge whether or not it's cool.)

They couldn't do it. The Flyers outshot the Penguins 28-21, but Biron was uncharacteristically shaky, and Marc-Andre Fleury played well on the other end of the rink. The Penguins showed over the last two periods that they are capable of mucking up the neutral zone, and they also used their forecheck to keep the puck in Philadelphia's end, even when they weren't generating great chances.

Pittsburgh's penalty kill was very strong, holding the Flyers' power play off the board in three chances. They also tallied Malkin's shortie, which was a huge goal for the Penguins. Not only did it give them a two-goal lead, but the goal seemed to take a lot of air out of Philadelphia. The Flyers only got 16 shots over the last two periods, and give the Pens credit for playing sound defensive hockey and keeping Philadelphia from re-gaining any momentum in the game.

Game Two is Sunday night at 7:30pm Eastern in Pittsburgh.

Can Dallas bounce back? I mentioned Friday that the Stars need to get their feet moving. They also have to decide how to defend Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom in front of the net, because what they tried in Game One didn't exactly work very well.

Actually, it failed miserably.

Franzen and Holmstrom each scored goals from the front of the net in the Wings' Game One win. It's a pattern that's likely to continue.

For one, the league adjusted rules after the lockout, cracking down on how players were treated when they didn't have the puck. While Holmstrom and Franzen (and others around the league who like to camp at the top of the crease) still have to establish position, the way they are treated once they win that battle has changed.

Dallas defenseman Mattias Norstrom said he can't battle or wrestle his fellow Swedes, adding there are ways to get the job done against Franzen and Holmstrom.

"You try to get in front of them and turn away that shot instead of focusing on moving the guy," Norstrom said. "From Marty's standpoint, if we're standing there battling, now they have two guys instead of one in front of them. Not a good situation."

Dallas doesn't have the bodies to win those battles for position in front of goaltender Marty Turco, so they have to defend in front of them better. If you're going to camp in front of your goaltender, you have to keep the puck from getting to him.

I expect to see some adjustments made by the Stars, but the big area of needed improvement is in the execution of their defensive zone play.

Ticket sales in Detroit lag again. James Mirtle covered this Friday. Frankly, I wish I could get really hyper about "Hockeytown" not selling out games, but this story isn't really news. It happened last year, too.

My guess is Dallas will fill its rink to capacity when the series shifts to Game 3 in Texas, Pittsburgh has sold out every game this season and things in Philadelphia are starting to really heat up in terms of sales and TV viewers.

It makes you wonder just where "Hockeytown" fits in as an American hockey market these days, and if the team has priced its cash-strapped fans out of the building.

Here's a look at playoff ticket prices in Detroit. For the conference finals, the cheapest ticket is $70-75, which is down from $99 last season. Upper bowl tickets, like the one I bought for a game against Phoenix in January, go from $44 in the regular season to $90-100 in this round, while lower bowl seats range from $180 to $215.

Listen, I have a lot of respect for the history of the Red Wings franchise. I'm confident a large majority of their fans do, too. While I think the "Hockeytown" moniker is a bit ridiculous (I'm also admittedly biased, having lived in or near Minnesota for my whole life), I'm also not going to hold it over anyone's head on this one.

These prices are ridiculous. It's amazing and sad that they're actually down from last year. But they're not "down" enough. Michigan's economy is terrible right now, and it's unfair to expect even a large city like Detroit to fill a hockey arena when the prices are like this.

Hopefully, ownership in Detroit gets this message, and we don't see a repeat next year.

Today's example of YouTube's awesomeness. In honor of University of Minnesota junior Blake Wheeler apparently deciding to sign with the Phoenix Coyotes, I present one of the best college hockey goals you'll ever witness. This is Wheeler's game-winner in the championship game of the 2007 WCHA Final Five.