DETROIT -- It’s impossible not to receive a history lesson at Joe Louis Arena.

The stairs along Jefferson Avenue leading up to the Gordie Howe entrance already have been decorated to celebrate the Detroit Red Wings’ 20 consecutive playoff seasons.

The walls leading to the Red Wings’ locker room continue to be lined with the names of their 11 Stanley Cup championship teams.

The statues circling the concourse look like they could spring to life at any moment and relay stories from the glory days of the Original Six era.

And the names of players past -- Yzerman, Shanahan, Konstantinov -- are scattered on the backs of jerseys throughout the stands.

Even the octopus’ garden that constitutes the playing surface -- final cephalopod count Wednesday night: five -- almost qualifies as some sort of biological lab.

From the looks of Game 1, the Red Wings might have put in a little extra study time of their own.

After a sloppy and undisciplined first period, the Red Wings seemed to flip that proverbial switch everyone likes to talk about in the second period and claim a 1-0 series lead with a 4-2 comeback win against the Phoenix Coyotes.

It wasn’t pretty, but it’s a start. And, in the end, all that matters is that final score.

Oddly, The Joe and its rich past hasn’t been particularly kind to the Red Wings this season. After opening the season 10-1-2 at home, they went 11-13-4 to close the regular season.

But the ghosts of playoffs past might have come out of the woodwork to help Detroit maintain the home-ice advantage.

"It’s huge. We haven’t been playing like we wanted to at home here," Red Wings forward Johan Franzen said. "We’re well aware about it, but I think everyone is so used to this, coming into the playoffs and stepping it up and taking it to the next level. I wasn’t worried about that, I knew we were going to come out and play a strong game."

In the first period, though, the Red Wings looked like they were going to fulfill the doomsday prophecies that spoiled fans occasionally will trot out despite two decades of sustained success, as if everything is too good to be true. As if the Red Wings will turn into the Lions at any moment.

Goaltender Jimmy Howard got beat by a player appearing in his first career postseason game, Kyle Turris, just 2:16 into the game. Then the Red Wings started taking turns in the penalty box and the game turned into one prolonged penalty kill drill. It was a disconcerting way to kick off Year 20 in the playoffs.

But then a funny thing happened. The Red Wings started to look like the Red Wings again. And the Coyotes looked more like a Looney Toons character than a young and talented upstart.

As Howard helped stymie the Coyotes’ power-play attack, which failed to capitalize on five early chances, the Red Wings found a way to stay out of the penalty box and their money players finally were able to cash in.

A slick wraparound from Pavel Datsyuk knotted the score at 1-1. A nasty wrister from Franzen made it 2-1, and a power-play blast from Brian Rafalski all but sealed the win.

The return of Franzen’s playoff magic was especially important. Even though he led the Red Wings with 28 goals, he only had two in his final 27 games after a five-goal outburst at Ottawa on Feb. 2.

None of that really makes a difference right now. Gaudy regular-season numbers are nice, but it’s postseason production that is paramount.

And with 32 goals and 29 assists in 52 playoff games, it’s clear that Franzen knows just when to turn it on. The rest of the team looks to follow suit.

"It’s different," Franzen said. "You get a different mind-set and everything. It’s just so much more intense. If it gets the team going, it gets me going."

Make no mistake, the Red Wings still have plenty of work ahead. If they want to have another shot at Lord Stanley, then they must eliminate the silly penalties and take care of the puck in their own zone. They can’t expect the penalty killers to cover for them until the offense starts to click.

Of course, a healthy Henrik Zetterberg would go a long way toward curing both of those maladies, but the Red Wings should have more than enough experience, skill and depth to endure his absence through this series.

It’s strange that a number of prognosticators picked the Coyotes to win this series. Sure, they’re a capable team that lost in seven games to the Red Wings in the first round last year, but is that really the smart bet to make?

There’s a reason why the Red Wings can use the playoff slogan, "This is Hockeytown. This is what we do."

The Coyotes? They’re not even 100 percent sure they’ll be playing in Phoenix next season.

It’s not hard to figure out which side history favors.

E-mail Michael Zuidema: mzuidema@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/michaelzuidema