"Over the course of the off-season, the concern was protecting players, but trying to

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins rink is 200 feet long by 85 feet wide, just like all the others in the NHL. So much ice. But in the playoff opener with the Detroit Red Wings, so little room to skate. Pavel Datsyuk managed to find enough space in the tight-checking game to score with 3:01 left and give the Red Wings a 1-0 win on Friday night. Now Boston has to create more room in Game 2 on Sunday or it could be looking at a 2-0 deficit with the best-of-seven series shifting to Detroit. "We thought that the game was actually faster than it was," Bruins centre David Krejci said. "We just have to hold on to the puck and make some confident plays." The more physical Bruins are usually the ones crowding opponents. They allowed the second-fewest goals during the regular season. But the speedy Red Wings stepped up their checking and limited the opportunities for the NHLs third-highest scoring team. "We did a fairly good job of boxing out and playing quicker on the defensive side of things," Detroit defenceman Niklas Kronwall said. "In our zone when we got the puck we were able to get it out fairly quick. We were able to get the pucks deep and go after their defence instead." The top-seeded Bruins won the Presidents Cup with the most points in the regular season, 117. The eighth-seeded Red Wings had just 93. But Boston coach Claude Julien knew going into the series that the disparity would not be nearly as great in the playoffs, which usually feature tighter checking and physical play. "I think we were physical enough" in the opener, Julien said Saturday. "We still had a lot of good hits. They do a good job when it comes to our forecheck. They get there, they like to have bodies in front of us on the forecheckers to kind of slow us down and we have to find ways to get through that." Five more things to look for as the Bruins try to gain a split: PAVEL PRODUCES: Datsyuk averaged 23 goals in his first 11 seasons with Detroit and had 17 this year despite playing in just 45 games. He missed 16 games with a knee injury and played just six more regular-season games after returning April 4. But he came through as he has so many times to score the winning goal. "Ive had him for a long time and, obviously, hes a world-class player and hes coming back from an injury, which is obvious when you see him out there," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said, "but he can still do some very good things." STINGY GOALIES: Bostons Tuukka Rask had the better numbers during the regular season with an NHL-leading seven shutouts while Detroits Jimmy Howard had just two. And both were impressive in the opener despite not facing many challenging shots. Rask did make an outstanding pad save on a rebound shot by Darren Helm early in the third period, and Howard knocked aside a deflection by Milan Lucic less than 30 seconds before Datsyuk scored. Expect more of the same stinginess as the series goes on. "Tuukka is a great goalie and we are going to have to keep finding ways to go to the net and get screens in front of his eyes because if he sees it, hes going to stop it," Howard said. POWER PLAY: The Bruins had the NHLs third-best power play, but the Red Wings committed just one penalty. The Red Wings were 0 for 2 on Friday after finishing 18th in power-play production. BRUINS DEPTH: Boston had 10 players with at least 10 goals and has four solid lines. But left wings Chris Kelly on the third line and Daniel Paille on the fourth were sidelined Friday and could miss Sundays game. The Bruins also were without two of their top six defencemen, Matt Bartkowski and Kevan Miller. Julien said he didnt know if Bartkowski and Miller would play Sunday. JUST ONE GAME: The Red Wings arent likely to get overconfident after winning the first game, even if it was on the road. In the second round last season, they led Chicago 3-1, then lost the next three games. The Blackhawks went on to win the Stanley Cup in six games over the Bruins. "You dont win the Presidents Trophy for not being a good team," Detroit forward Drew Miller said. "So weve got to be prepared." Cheap Pittsburgh Steelers Jerseys . Listen to the Rangers vs. Kings live on TSN Radio starting at 7pm et/4pm pt. You can also stream the post-game press conferences live on TSN. Wholesale NFL Store . "Uuufff," was all shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria could come up with after Stantons latest mammoth shot. http://www.wholesalejerseysfromchinashop.com/ . As for regular Olympic spectators, theyre being warned that most travel insurance policies wont cover acts of terrorism or war. The Games in southern Russia, which run from Feb. 7-23, are being staged amid unprecedented security and under global warnings of danger. Cheap Soccer Jerseys . The veteran fighter will be squaring off with Henderson in a five-round lightweight bout as part of another network televised card at the United Center on Saturday night. Cheap NFL Jerseys . Alfredo Simon lowered his ERA to 0.86, and the Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 4-1 Friday for their 16th win in their last 17 games at the Friendly Confines. NEW YORK -- Rather than ban home plate collisions outright, Major League Baseball and its players adopted a rule limiting them this season. In what both sides said was a one-year experiment, the rule allows collisions if the catcher has the ball and is blocking the runners direct path to home plate, and if the catcher goes into the basepath to field a throw to the plate. "Its not a radical departure from what it had been," Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon said. The new rule, 7.13, states "a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate)." A runner violating the rule shall be declared out, even if the fielder drops the ball. "Its good, I think it takes away the malicious intent behind the play at the plate," Texas Rangers catcher J.P. Arencibia said. "Obviously the runner doesnt always have to slide, and the catcher still has the ability to block the plate once he has the ball in hand." Along with the rule, the sides agreed to a pair of comments umpires use for interpretation. The first comment says "the failure by the runner to make an effort to touch the plate, the runners lowering of the shoulder, or the runners pushing through with his hands, elbows or arms, would support a determination that the runner deviated from the pathway in order to initiate contact with the catcher in violation." The comment says players who slide appropriately are not in violation of the rule. The second comment says that "unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score." The runner shall be declared safe if the catcher violates that provisiion.dddddddddddd In addition, it is not a violation "if the catcher blocks the pathway of the runner in order to field a throw, and the umpire determines that the catcher could not have fielded the ball without blocking the pathway of the runner and that contact with the runner was unavoidable." "There are some things that often times can make the water a little muddy," union head Tony Clark said after meeting with the New York Yankees. "Over the course of the off-season, the concern was protecting players, but trying to draw up something that not only made sense on paper, but also was going to make sense to the players that were playing on the field." The umpire crew chief can use the new video-review system to determine whether the rule was violated. "It stops guys just going out of their way just to try to dislodge the baseball when they (catchers) have the plate," Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington said. Debate over plate collisions has intensified since May 2011, when San Franciscos Buster Posey was injured as the Marlins Scott Cousins crashed into him at the plate. Posey, an All-Star catcher, sustained a broken bone in his lower left leg and three torn ligaments in his ankle, an injury that ended his season. In Game 5 of last years AL championship series, Detroit backstop Alex Avila was pulled a couple of innings after being run over at the plate by Bostons David Ross, a fellow catcher. "I think its fair. A runners path is to home plate," Oakland catcher Derek Norris said. "Any deviation and hes not trying to score, hes trying to harm. A runner going out of the basepath trying to break up a double play is declared out. This is the same concept as a double-play slide." ' ' '