John Stevens was noncommittal Saturday about putting Steve Downie in the lineup in place of Patrick Thoresen, but not yesterday.

Downie played on a wing with Jim Dowd and Sami Kapanen in last night's game. The change gives the Flyers more of an edge in the forecheck and adds more offense to the fourth line.

In 12 playoff games, Thoresen had two assists, Downie had one assist in four games. The tradeoff could be in power-play opportunities for the opposition; Downie had 10 penalty minutes to Thoresen's four.

Still, considering that the Flyers needed a more physical game, the risk was worth it.

"I'm going to do the same thing I always do," Downie said before the game. "Get in the corners and win battles. That's my game and I'm sticking to it."

Love and hate

For two teams that supposedly hate each other they are always quick to offer compliments.

Consider what Jeff Carter had to say about Evgeni Malkin when asked to compare him to the league's other star Russians, and what Sidney Crosby said about Mike Richards.

"I think there's a lot of similarities," Carter said. "[Alex] Ovechkin, [Alexei] Kovalev, Malkin all those guys are so highly skilled that you have to be aware every time they are on the ice. I think Malkin kind of does it all. He can go right through you, he can dangle around you. He's pretty good in his own end, too. He's just a pretty complete player. You have to really be aware of him."

And Crosby on Richards:

"He's always been a really responsible player. He's always been gifted offensively, but very strong defensively as well, and a guy that's led by example, and showed great leadership," he said. "All the traits that I've seen since the first day I saw him play, he's carried right on through and improved. He's a great two-way player."

Both teams poo-pooed the idea that they would make changes to adjust to the loss of Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers' best defenseman. Yesterday, Penguins coach Michel Therrien let on what he was really thinking when asked about the matchups of his forwards against the Flyers' defense.

"The loss of Timonen, it's a huge loss for them," he said. "We try to take advantage of it as much as we can. I am not concentrating too much about our forwards against their forwards."

The biggest difference for the Flyers' defensemen was finding a way to account for Timonen's nearly 25 minutes of ice time. Captain Jason Smith played nearly three more minutes in Game 1 than he had averaged in the first two rounds of the playoffs, from 16:01 to 18:58. Braydon Coburn (plus 1:11) and Derian Hatcher (plus 38 seconds) also saw their time on ice increase in the series opener.