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Sidney Crosby and the Penguins were badly outplayed by the Red Wings in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals Saturday.

"We’re a different team than what they’ve played before," Osgood said. "The (New York) Rangers would have been the closest thing to us. Ottawa dumps it in quite a bit, Philly definitely does.

"We possess the puck. The best defense is to have the puck. That’s what we believe in and I just think they hadn’t seen that before."

The result is that for the first time in the playoffs, the Penguins are truly in trouble. They haven’t faced real adversity yet in the postseason, both of their previous losses coming while they led series 3-0.

Now, they are behind and perhaps even behind the eight-ball.

Solutions, anyone?

"We just have to be a little smarter and a little more disciplined and move the puck quicker and play in their end more and we’ll be alright," Gill suggested.

Oh, is that all?

"We have more success when we move our feet," Crosby said. "We didn’t do that in the second period."

Actually, they did. The Penguins were chasing the Wings all over the ice.

"Turnovers killed us," Pittsburgh forward Marian Hossa said. "We have to learn our lessons. We didn’t play our game. We have to get together.

"We have to be better."

Crosby believes the Penguins can cure what ails them by dumping the puck in and giving the Detroit defense a taste of their forecheck.

"I think we have a lot of speed and either we’re going to get the puck back, or they’re going to get called for penalties," Crosby said. "There’s no other way."

There’s just one hitch in that plan. As a rule, the Wings don’t generally let the other team have a lot of the puck.

"We love being a puck possession team," Detroit center Kris Draper said. "We love the transition game. We want to keep skating and frustrate them."

One game in, consider that mission accomplished.

It’s Pittsburgh’s turn to make something happen now. The Penguins need to step up big time in Game 2 on Monday, to convince themselves — and everyone else — that this can actually still become a series.

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