Mandatory News

Friday, May 27, 2016

NHL Playoffs: What time, channel is Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Pittsburgh Penguins Game 7? (5/26/16)

Tampa Bay Lightning vs Pittsburgh Penguins. 2016 NHL Playoffs. ECF. Game 7. 05.26.2016. (HD)

The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Pittsburgh Penguins meet in a deciding Game 7 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finalson Thursday, May 26, 2016, at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.

The winner advances to the Stanley Cup Finals against the winner of the Western Conference Finals, the San Jose Sharks.

Here"s what you need to know:

Who:Tampa Bay Lightning at Pittsburgh Penguins

What: Game 7, Eastern Conference Finals (best of seven)

Where: Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh

When: Thursday, May 26, 2016

Start: 8 p.m. Eastern

TV: NBC Sports Network

Livestream:NBC Sports Live Extra

Line: Penguins -1.5

DeBoer leads Sharks into Stanley Cup Finals

With all that"s on the line, Sidney Crosby is in no mood to get caught up in his own narrative.

Forget that Crosby has the game-winning goal in each of Pittsburgh"s victories in its entertaining back-and-forth with the resilient Lightning. Forget that he hasn"t been on the winning side of a post-series handshake line this deep into the playoffs in seven years -- when he hoisted thePenguins" third Stanley Cup.

Yes, he"s playing well. Yes, his dazzling, imminently GIF-able sprint through the Tampa Bay zone late in the second period of Game 6 added another signature moment to a career full of them.

But depth has carried thePenguinsthis far. Crosby insists Game 7 will be about the team, not him.

"You give yourself the best chance of winning by keeping it simple and not putting too much emphasis on kind of the story line around it," Crosby said.

Even if it"s easy to get lost in those story lines. The Lightning are on the verge of a second straight berth in the final despite playing the entire postseason without captain Steven Stamkos and losing Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop in the first period of the conference finals when he twisted his left leg.

Tampa Bay has stuck around, ceding the ice to thePenguinsfor significant stretches but using their speed to counterattack brilliantly while relying on 21-year-old goaltender Andrei Vasilevski. The Lightning are hardly intimidated by having to go on the road in a series decider. They did it a year ago in the Eastern final against New York, beating the Rangers 2-0 in Madison Square Garden.

Series at a glance

Friday, May 13: Tampa Bay 3, Pittsburgh 1

Monday, May 16: Pittsburgh 3, Tampa Bay 2, OT

Wednesday, May 18: Pittsburgh 4, Tampa Bay 2

Friday, May 20: Tampa Bay 4, Pittsburgh 3

Sunday, May 22: Tampa Bay 4, Pittsburgh 3, OT

Tuesday, May 24: Pittsburgh 5, Tampa Bay 2

Thursday, May 26:Pittsburgh, 8 p.m.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Randy Miller may be reached atrmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@RandyJMiller.FindNJ.com on Facebook.

Source: http://www.nj.com/rangers/index.ssf/2016/05/nhl_playoffs_what_time_channel_is_tampa_bay_lightn.html

By one strange stat, Penguins have advantage over Sharks in Stanley Cup finals quest

Питтсбург – Тампа-Бэй / PENGUINS VS. LIGHTNING MAY 26, 2016

The Stanley Cup finals will pit the two teams with the best records in the NHL over the last 10 seasons.

It will also put to the test an interesting and perhaps odd trend that has carried through the last 15 seasons.

Cup Result?2014 KingsWon2011 BruinsWon2006 HurricanesWon2004 LightningWon2003 DevilsWon2002 Red WingsWon

This will be the seventh time in the past 15 seasons that the Stanley Cup finals features one team that went seven games it its conference finals series and one team that did not.

The team coming off the Game 7 victory went on to win the Stanley Cup each of the previous six times -- so, advantage Pittsburgh Penguins over the San Jose Sharks.

The Penguins got there on the strength of first-year players: a rookie goalie in Matt Murray and a rookie goal scorer in Bryan Rust. They also have a coach in his first season with the team in Mike Sullivan.

Elias Sports Bureau research shows that its the fourth time that a rookie goalie won a Game 7 and a rookie skater scored the winning goal. It last happened in 1986, when both the Montreal Canadiens and Calgary Flames did it.

Elias also notes that Murray will be the sixth rookie goalie to start a Stanley Cup finals game in the past 30 seasons. Coincidentally, the last goaltender to do so was the goalie Murray beat on Thursday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning"s Andrei Vasilevskiy, for the Lightning last season.

Rust scored twice in Game 7 versus the Lightning, making it the first time in his career that he had a multigoal game.

All three Game 7 goals were scored in the second period, when the Penguins logged 32 shot attempts and the Lightning managed only nine. The Penguins outshot the Lightning in all seven games in this series. Elias notes that the last time one team outshot another in all seven games in a series was in the 2011 matchup between these same teams. The Penguins outshot the Lightning but lost the series.

Sidney Crosby didnt score for Pittsburgh on Thursday on the six shots he took in 23 minutes, but he did reach the finals for the third time. Per Elias, Crosby (and possibly Marc-Andre Fleury, if he plays in place of Murray) will join Mike Modano and Patrick Kane as No. 1 overall picks drafted since 1979 (the first draft after the NHL/WHA merger) to make three Stanley Cup finals appearances.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/118974/by-one-stat-penguins-have-an-advantage-in-stanley-cup-finals-quest

WTF X-Men: Apocalypse"s End Credits Scene All About?

X-Men: Apocalypse | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

No matter what you thought of X-Men: Apocalypse, odds are you sat through the credits to see if there was some kind of tease. And there was. And its a weird one, unless you are well-versed in comic books. So if you didnt understand the implications, were here to help!

To explain, I have to ruin another big surprise in the movie so, obviously...

Early in the film, when Cyclops, Jean, and Nightcrawer go to rescue Raven, Beast, Quicksilver, and Moira from Stryker, they get some help from none other than Wolverine, seen in his iconic Weapon X garb. He rampages through the barracks before meeting up with Jean and heading out on his own. This is important not just is this a big part of Wolverines origin, but because whatever tests they did on Logan set up the end credits.

The end credit scene is back in Strykers bunker, where Wolverine is being experimented on. A group of people walk in, take a vial of liquid labeled Weapon X and put it in a briefcase with a bunch of similar tubes. When the case closes, it says Essex Corp on it.

The Essex Corporation is the company of Nathaniel Essex, known in the comics as supervillain Mr. Sinister. In the comics hes a 19th-century scientist who, with the help of Apocalypse, is given mutant powers and made basically immortal. He spends all that time experimenting on mutants, trying to build bigger and better ones, so it would make sense that he wants the Weapon X serum.

Whats most interesting about this tag is Mr. Sinisters long, varied comic book past has lots of potential connections to the past, present, and future of the X-Men movies. First, theres the connection to Apocalypse. We see Apocalypse enhancing mutants in this movie, but Essex was born in the 19th centuryin the movies, Apocalypse was stuck under a pyramid at the time. The next movie could just say Mr. Sinister is as old as Apocalypse, but that would be a big change.

Back in the comics, Sinister is also thought to have created Scott Summers (Cyclops, played by Tye Sheridans) son, Nathan, who becomes Cable. Cable, of course, is a character we know is coming in the Deadpool sequel. Again, a connection between the son of Cyclops (who will only be in his 20s in the next film) and Deadpools world feels like a huge leap. The characters do have a link, though, so anything is possible.

Weve also heard rumors of the female Wolverine character, X-23, coming in an upcoming film. Shes a clone, and has nothing to do with the Weapon X program specifically, but the movies have often gone away from the comic book origins. It seems perfectly plausible that X-23 could be made from the blood of Weapon X in a future movie.

Basically, dropping those two words, Essex Corp, in the ending of Apocalypse is writer Simon Kinberg opening a very large, and very adaptable chapter of the X-Men universe. Sinister is a powerful villain whose backstory offers a ton of potential links to characters new and old.

Source: http://io9.gizmodo.com/wtf-x-men-apocalypses-end-credits-scene-all-about-1778972875

Photos: Red Nose Day 2016