FanHouse Ulf Samuelsson

It wasn't even 30 seconds into Eric Staal's post game interview on VERSUS Thursday night when we received our first reference to the fact that he and his brother, Jordan Staal, were about to face off in the Eastern Conference Finals. Get used to it, because you're going to hear about it ... a lot. To get you ready for the Staal family reunion, head on over to Puck Huffers to get your set of rules for the official Staal Brothers Drinking Game.

Over/under on number of references in the series: 200

This is just one of the many random story lines you're sure to hear about as the Penguins and Hurricanes fight for a trip to the Stanley Cup Final. Here are some of the others.

Phoenix associate coach Ulf Samuelsson is one of only three Europeans currently coaching in the NHL, along with Ulf Dahlen of Dallas and New Jersey's Tommy Albelin. Jarmo Kekalainen, the assistant general manager of the St. Louis Blues, is the only European member of a front office in the NHL. This is the evidence presented by Tom Reed of The Columbus Dispatch, who explores the lack of Europeans behind both hockey benches and front office desks; and he finds that current and former non-North American players don't believe this is a case of institutional xenophobia from the League's good 'ole boys club. They see other challenges:

Kekalainen dreams of becoming the first European NHL general manager, but he and his wife want their two young daughters to be exposed to Finnish culture. "You have to ask yourself if you really want to make that commitment to live full time in North America," said Kekalainen, who played briefly in the NHL and earned a management degree from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y.

Another issue is communication, Dahlen said. Coaches must be able to speak English well enough to get their point across to players, the media and the public.