And the banter begins...

Ottawa coach and general manager Bryan Murray suggested after Senators practice yesterday that the Penguins manipulated their first-round playoff matchup by purposely losing, 2-0, Sunday at Philadelphia in their regular-season finale.

"I knew what was going on. You guys all know -- they wanted to play Ottawa," Murray said. "That's fine.

"That was fairly obvious from the drop of the puck."

The Penguins rested center Sidney Crosby, who missed 28 games in the second half of the season because of a high ankle sprain, and went 0 for 8 on the power play in the shutout loss. If they had won, they would have clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference and would be playing No. 8 Philadelphia instead of the seventh-seeded Senators.

But the Penguins also stuck with No. 1 goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, used their top special-team units and played their regulars, other than Crosby, extensively. Defenseman Sergei Gonchar played 29:38, his sixth-highest ice time of the season.

"Bryan has coached over 1,000 games in the NHL," Penguins general manager Ray Shero said.

"He's got different ways to motivate his team, and this is one of them."

With Ottawa, the Penguins face a club that beat them in five games in the first round of the playoffs last season and in three of four meetings this season, but also a club that listed after a 15-2 start, including a 7-11-2 stretch over its last 20 games. Murray fired and replaced John Paddock Feb. 27.

The Senators also will be without captain and second-leading scorer Daniel Alfredsson, center Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly, a top penalty-killer. All are injured.

Murray believes the Penguins wanted to avoid the rougher style of Philadelphia.

"In a seven-game series, if you don't like a physical way the Flyers play, it's probably better to go elsewhere," Murray said.

Not all the Senators agreed with Murray's assessment of a Penguins plot. Defenseman Chris Phillips noted that Ottawa has at times rested players, too, and center and leading scorer Jason Spezza doubted teams would purposely lose.

The most famous and widespread accusation of the Penguins tanking for gain came in 1983-84, before the NHL had a draft lottery, when the team finished last overall and therefore got to draft Hall of Fame center and now owner Mario Lemieux first overall.

FSN Pittsburgh will carry all the Penguins' first-round games. Games 1 and 5 at Mellon Arena have been picked up for national telecasts on Versus, but those will be blacked out locally.

FSN Pittsburgh will carry Game 1 in high definition.

The HD channels are: Comcast 226/769, Armstrong 179, Citizen 737, DISH 428, DirecTV 628-1 and Atlantic Broadband 782.

The gambling Web site Bodog has made the Penguins a 2-1 favorite to make it to the Stanley Cup final and a 13-2 third choice behind Detroit and San Jose to win the Cup. ... A No. 7 seed upset a No. 2 seed each spring from 1997-2006, including six times in the Eastern Conference. ... The Penguins were given the day off yesterday.