You might think Ty Conklin would be drawing a crowd among his Penguins teammates this week. After all, he stared down the Red Wings and pitched a shutout for more than 60 minutes the last time the Penguins played in Detroit.

But Conklin doesn't have much insight to offer on the Penguins' opponent for the Stanley Cup final, which opens Saturday at Joe Louis Arena.

That's because the game came in the preseason eight months ago today. Long-in-the-tooth defenseman Chris Chelios scored at 1:18 of overtime for the only goal.

"You can't even compare because they might have had half their guys, and I don't think we had half the guys who are on this team now, and it was a very young team," Conklin said.

Eight players who are playing this postseason were in the Penguins' lineup that night, as were seven Detroit playoff regulars besides Chelios. The rest were mostly prospects.

The next night, the teams went with a majority of their NHL roster as the Red Wings won, 5-2, in another exhibition game, this one at Mellon Arena.

Gonchar on Lidstrom

Count Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar among the legions of fans of Detroit captain Niklas Lidstrom, the favorite to win another Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman.

"What can you say about a guy who is probably one of the best defensemen to ever play hockey?" said Gonchar, who is Russian, of the 38-year-old Swede whom he has seen for many years in the NHL and international play, including the Olympics.

"He controls the puck on the power play. He's great defensively. He plays a lot of minutes for them. He does everything."

Of course, some in Detroit might be saying similar things about Gonchar.

Fleury on Osgood

Goaltenders study opponents' skaters, but they also follow one another.

So the Penguins' Marc-Andre Fleury is well aware of Detroit's Chris Osgood, who, at 35, is 12 years Fleury's senior and has appeared in 100 NHL playoff games, 81 more than Fleury.

"When I was younger, I used to watch him on TV a lot," Fleury said. "He's always done great in his career, and it's pretty cool for me to have a chance to go against a guy like that."

'We're on our own'

Wisdom hasn't been pouring in for 20-year-old captain Sidney Crosby and those of his teammates who have little NHL playoff experience. Asked about the best advice they've received concerning playing the Cup final, Crosby answered quickly.

"We've gotten none," he said, then smiled.

"We're on our own. But we've got a lot of veterans."

Superstitious ... Who? Me?

Every day during the playoffs, Crosby goes to a stage for a news conference. When it's at Mellon Arena, he always sits in the same chair closest to the left side of the platform and makes sure he uses the microphone with the red cord -- even making the building union guys cringe by switching things around if they don't suit his preference.

So his answer to a question about his most important superstitions wasn't surprising.

"Too many to discuss, especially in the playoffs," he said. "That's one of the fun things about the playoffs. You really see guys get in their routines that you don't typically see during the season. Guys who typically aren't that superstitious, you start to see the same things over and over again."

Someone suggested he should have switched to the microphone with the blue cord to talk about superstitions.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Crosby said, with a grin.

Slap shots

Left winger Gary Roberts, who missed the past three games because of pneumonia, skated alone yesterday while his teammates had an off-ice workout. ... About 1,000 tickets for Game 3 and Game 4 at Mellon Arena go on sale at 10 a.m. today through www.ticketmaster.com, at the Mellon Arena Gate One box office and Ticketmaster locations, and by phone at 412-323-1919. Lottery systems will be used for in-person sales. There is a two-ticket maximum per person. ... The status of Red Wings winger Johan Franzen (concussion-like symptoms) remains uncertain, but Chelios, who missed Detroit's Game 6 win Monday at Dallas because of a leg injury, is likely to play in Game 1.