FanHouse Zarley Zalapski

There's a scene in an old Simpsons episode (the exact episode escapes me) where Otto the bus driver is attending a concert, sitting amongst a sea of spectators who are all standing up, screaming, and enjoying themselves. Otto, annoyed by his line of vision being obstructed by his fellow concert-goers, screamed for everyone else to "sit down, sit down, you're ruining it for the rest of us."

A similar scene played out high atop section E-16 of Mellon Arena on Tuesday night, nearly leading to a fight between two women as the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings frantically played the final six minutes of the third period of Game 3.

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.

Whether it's fair or not, Penguins center Sidney Crosby has a reputation around the league for being somewhat of a complainer, or, if you so choose, a whiner. Living in Pittsburgh, I'm obviously not afraid to admit that I've been a Penguins fan since I was old enough to say Zarley Zalapski.

Naturally, I tend to feel the need to come to the defense of our leader when the words start flying. Unfortunately, I don't have much of a defense for Crosby taking issue with Capitals fans littering the ice with hats following Alex Ovechkin's hat trick during Washington's 4-3 win on Monday night.