.19-million) has been okay and G Jose Theodor

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins worked all season to get home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. It vanished with a flick of Pavel Datsyuks wrist. Just like that, on Datsyuks goal with 3:01 left, the Detroit Red Wings got the upper hand with a 1-0 win in the opener of the best-of-seven playoff series Friday night. "We know were good enough," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said, "but its one thing to know youre good enough and another thing to show it." The Bruins won the Presidents Trophy for the best record in the regular season -- although they were 1-3 against the Red Wings -- but were locked in a tight game in which neither team had many solid scoring opportunities. The eighth-seeded Red Wings made their last one count. "Its a good start," Datsyuk said, "but we know there are many tough games (ahead)." Game 2 of the first playoff matchup between the Original Six teams in 57 years is set for Sunday in Boston. And Detroit doesnt have to win there again to advance. "Ill take home-ice advantage any time," Bruins coach Claude Julien said, "but that doesnt mean you cant win on the road ... which is what we have to do in this series if we plan on winning this." Datsyuk, still not fully recovered from a knee injury, wasnt Detroits only late-game star. His goal came moments after a brilliant glove save by Jimmy Howard on Milan Lucics deflection in front of the net. "It was pretty lucky," said Howard, who had 25 saves in his third career playoff shutout. Lucic "stuck his stick out and got a lot on it and it just sort of spun (off) my glove and I was just able to get enough of it." The goal came when Datsyuk carried the puck from the right side to the left in Bostons zone while teammate Justin Abdelkader skated up the slot between Zdeno Chara and Dougie Hamilton. Both defencemen fell as Datsyuk put a 30-footer past goalie Tuukka Rasks left glove. "Abby did a great job, drove the middle, created space for him," Babcock said. That may have distracted Rask. "You just try to get the puck in your eyes and I couldnt," Rask said. "Usually, he tries to make a pass." Puck handlers had very little space throughout the game. "Were going to have to expect that for the rest of the series and find ways to create some offence," Bostons Patrice Bergeron said. The Bruins scored the third-most goals during the regular season and had just two regulation losses in their last 23 games. Fridays loss was their first playoff game since they dropped the deciding Game 6 of last seasons Stanley Cup final in Boston. They lost 3-2 to the Chicago Blackhawks after allowing the tying and winning goals in the last 76 seconds. Datsyuk, who missed 16 games with a knee injury before returning April 4, got his first playoff goal since Game 3 of Detroits second-round playoff series against Chicago last year. The Red Wings had a 3-1 lead in that series against the Blackhawks, and then lost three in a row. Boston had a decent scoring opportunity in the first minute of the third period when Brad Marchand stole the puck in the Detroit zone and fired a 20-footer from Howards right. But the goalie stopped the shot with his pad. The Red Wings had a better chance two minutes later when Rask made a save, and then stuck his right pad out to kick aside Darren Helms shot on the rebound. Boston played without four regulars, including defencemen Matt Bartkowski and Kevan Miller, both sidelined with the flu. Center Chris Kelly sat out with a back injury and left wing Daniel Paille had a head injury suffered in a collision in the next-to-last game of the regular season. For Detroit, centre Henrik Zetterberg has been out since Feb. 8 with a back condition that required surgery and defenceman Jonathan Ericsson hasnt played since March 14 because of a broken finger. NOTES: Seven players saw their first playoff action, Detroits Luke Glendening, Tomas Jurco, Riley Sheahan and Tomas Tatar, and Bostons Justin Florek, Corey Potter and Reilly Smith. ... Smith became the first Bruin to face his brother in a playoff games since Phil Esposito played against Chicago goalie Tony Esposito in 1975. Brendan Smith plays defence for Detroit. ... The Red Wings are in the playoffs for the 23rd straight time. Puma Shoes Australia Sale Puma Outlet Store Australia .com) - The New York Jets have named Mike Maccagnan their new general manager. http://www.pumaaustraliawholesale.com/. - Buffalo Bills running back C. Puma Shoes Clearance Australia . As each game passes (each has played close with the exception of last night) it becomes clearer just how evenly matched these two teams are and how one mistake, or one bad inning, is likely to sway the result. Puma Shoes Australia Store . -- Former NHL star Jeremy Roenick shot a second-round 69 to take the lead after 36 holes and former LPGA great Annika Sorenstam and Chad Pfeifer, who lost his left leg above the knee serving in Iraq, are among several players in contention in the American Century Championship tournament on Saturday.It really didnt come as a surprise that the Florida Panthers fired head coach Kevin Dineen Friday, but its not like a change in the coaching staff is going to magically cure what ails this team. Any time a team fails to meet expectations, coaches end up on the chopping block, but that leads to the question: why would there have been expectations put upon the Florida Panthers for the 2013-2014 season? Go back to the 2011-2012 season, when the Panthers won the Southeast Division, with 94 points in 82 games, despite recording 32 regulation and overtime wins, a total that tied non-playoff teams Buffalo, Carolina (who finished last in the Southeast Division) and Colorado for 20th in the league. The Panthers also had a minus-24 goal differential, so anything beyond the point total in the standings suggested they were not really a playoff-calibre team. Consider them a prime example of a team not being what its record is. Then the Panthers proceeded to lose in double-overtime of Game Seven (after losing in overtime in Game Six) in the first round of the playoffs against the eventual Eastern-Conference-Champion New Jersey Devils, making it easy to sell the idea that the Panthers were "this close" to competing with the top teams in the league. It needs to be noted, however, that the Panthers overachieved in 2011-2012, to even generate mediocre results disguised as playoff-worthy. Florida needed to spend a lot of money in the summer of the 2011 season just to get above the salary floor and, as a result, cobbled together a make-shift roster, handing out some contracts that had surprisingly long-term implications. Sure, Florida signed Tomas Fleischmann (four years, $18-million), and he scored a career-high 61 points in 2011-2012, and has generally been a productive scorer since. C Marcel Goc (three years, $5.19-million) has been okay and G Jose Theodore (two years, $3-million) was a low-risk move, but the Panthers also inked RW Scottie Upshall (four years, $14-million), D Ed Jovanovski (four years, $16.5-million) and LW Sean Bergenheim (four years, $11-million), none of whom has provided a decent return on investment. (Injuries have admittedly played a part in their lack of production.) The Panthers also dipped into GM Dale Tallons past and traded for some former Chicago Blackhawks: D Brian Campbell, RW Kris Versteeg and RW Tomas Kopecky. That roster didnt have any business harbouring playoff expectations yet, with Dineen taking over for Peter DeBoer behind the bench, the Panthers defied the odds and reached the postseason, thanks in large part to Fleischmann, Versteeg and Stephen Weiss, their top line that combined for 70 goals and 172 points. Campbell added 53 points while playing nearly 27 minutes per game. That quartet made up the entire list of Florida Panthers to record more than 33 points that season, so there wasnt a lot coming from the supporting cast. The 2013 season brought much worse results, particularly when injuries limited Weiss and Versteeg to a total of 27 games and the goaltending went from decent, ranking 11th with a .914 save percentage, to a league-worrst .dddddddddddd.887 save percentage in the lockout-shortened 2013 season. Those injuries, and subpar goaltending, over a small-sample season may have been what led Tallon to still harbour expectations for this team coming into the 2013-2014 season. Or maybe its because there is a new owner calling the shots that the Panthers couldnt simply see the 2013-2014 season as one for development of their young talent. After all, the Panthers have added some promising young players including LW Jonathan Huberdeau, C Aleksander Barkov and C Nick Bjugstad, who are all playing significant minutes. D Erik Gudbranson, the third overall pick in 2010, and D Dmitry Kulikov, the 14th pick in 2009 are still works in progress, but young enough to be part of what the Panthers are trying to build. G Jacob Markstrom is supposed to be the goaltender of the future, even if the 23-year-old has struggled this year. Forwards Vincent Trocheck and Drew Shore and defencemen Alex Petrovic and Colby Robak have been in the AHL, playing for new head coach Peter Horacheck. Trocheck, who has 11 points in 11 games as a first-year pro and nearly made the Panthers out of training camp, could get his opportunity soon. In the summer of 2013, the Panthers didnt spend big money, but brought in a lot of veterans on low-money deals. Defencemen Tom Gilbert has been a bargain as a top-four defenceman while Matt Gilroy and checking forward Jesse Winchester have been decent. Veteran forwards Brad Boyes and Scott Gomez along with blueliner Ryan Whitney have not been effective and goaltender Tim Thomas hasnt been able to stay healthy in his attempt to return to action after a year off. As a result, the Panthers have the leagues 28th-ranked goal differential (minus-1.36 per game), ahead of only the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres. Unfortunately, the goaltending hasnt gotten any better this season, ranking 28th with an .885 save percentage, and no team can win with goaltending of that calibre, let alone a team that isnt scoring at the other end of the ice and the Panthers rank 29th in 5-on-5 shooting percentage when the score is close. The good news, according to the probabilities of advanced stats, is that the Panthers arent likely to maintain such terrible shooting and save percentages all season, so they are due to get some better results; a little "puck luck" as it were. Of course, being better than their current 3-9-4 record doesnt mean all that much. When those young players start to control play more consistently and the Panthers start getting adequate goaltending, they may turn the corner, but thats going to require patience and the expectations placed on this team dont necessarily allow for patience. Trouble is, when a general manager makes moves that appear to reveal a lack of patience, its fair to start wondering if the next one on the chopping block will be the GM. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '