FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, June 7th, 2016
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS CAN WIN 2016 STANLEY CUP FINAL THURSDAY NIGHT AT 8 P.M. ET ON NBC
Penguins Lead Sharks 3-1; Can Become Pittsburgh’s First Professional Team to Win Title At Home Since 1960 Pirates
“Maybe Bill Mazeroski will be there.” – Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick on Potential Cup-Clinching Game 5
Stanley Cup Final Continues to Deliver Local Ratings Records in Pittsburgh and San Jose
STAMFORD, Conn. – June 7, 2016 – Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins can win the 2016 Stanley Cup with a Game 5 win against Joe Thornton and the San Jose Sharks this Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
Four-time Emmy Award-winning play-by-play commentator Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick, U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame member and analyst Eddie Olczyk, and Emmy Award-winning ‘Inside-the-Glass’ analyst Pierre McGuire will call Game 5. This marks the 10th consecutive year that Emrick, Olczyk and McGuire have combined to call the Stanley Cup Final for NBC Sports.
Pre-game coverage begins at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN with NHL Live, hosted by Kathryn Tappen and Dave Briggs alongside analysts and former players Jeremy Roenick, Anson Carter and Brian Boucher on-set outside of CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pa. Coverage shifts inside at 7:30 p.m. ET with host Liam McHugh, who will anchor pre-game and intermission coverage alongside analysts and former players Mike Milbury and Keith Jones.
PENGUINS LEAD SHARKS 3-1; CAN BECOME PITTSBURGH’S FIRST PROFESSIONAL TEAM TO WIN TITLE AT HOME SINCE 1960
The Penguins took control of the Stanley Cup Final with a 3-1 win last night in Game 4 in San Jose. Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal of the series midway through the second period, and Phil Kessel added a pair of assists in the win for Pittsburgh.
The Penguins can become the first Pittsburgh-based professional sports team to win a championship within the city limits since the 1960 World Series, when the Pirates defeated the New York Yankees in Game 7 on a walk-off home run by Bill Mazeroski. The Penguins have won three Stanley Cups in their history, but none in Pittsburgh – 1991 in Minnesota, 1992 in Chicago, and 2009 in Detroit.
STANLEY CUP FINAL CONTINUES TO DELIVER RECORD LOCAL RATINGS IN PITTSBURGH AND SAN JOSE
Following are ratings highlights from last night’s Game 4 matchup between the Penguins and Sharks:
- Game 4 on NBC produced a 7.4 rating in San Francisco/San Jose/Oakland, making it the highest-rated Sharks game ever on the networks of NBCUniversal in the market;
- Game 4 on NBC produced a 34.3 rating in Pittsburgh – the highest local rating for a Penguins game on the networks of NBCUniversal since Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final vs. Detroit on NBC (42.2);
- Game 4 delivered a 3.1 overnight rating – the second-best Game 4 ON rating on the networks of NBCUniversal, behind 6/19/13 Boston/Chicago on NBC (4.57). It peaked in the 10:45-11 p.m. ET quarter hour (3.72).
- PIT-SJ delivered the third-best overnight rating of any non-Original Six Stanley Cup Final game on the networks of NBCUniversal, behind only EDM-CAR Game 7 (6/19/06; 4.14) and NJ-LA Game 6 (6/11/12; 3.98), which were both Cup-clinching games on NBC.
NOTES AND QUOTES FROM GAME 4
Following are excerpts from last night’s Game 4 broadcast on NBC. Click here for more notes and quotes from Game 4.
Emrick: “It was October 1960 the last time a Pittsburgh team named the Pirates, Steelers or Penguins won a championship within the city limits. There have been 11 titles since then, but none of them won at home – something these Penguins have a chance to do Thursday. Maybe Bill Mazeroski will be there.”
Milbury on the Penguins: “They had a brilliant game plan. They simplified it to the point where San Jose was totally frustrated.”
McGuire: “People were worried about Evgeni Malkin. I don’t think they need to worry about him anymore.”
GAMES TELEVISED SO FAR
For the fifth consecutive year, NBC, NBCSN, USA Network, CNBC and NHL Network are combining to televise every Stanley Cup Playoff game nationally.
| Network | Games |
| NBC | 15 |
| NBCSN | 54 |
| USA Network | 6 |
| CNBC | 12 |
| NHL Network | 2 |
| Total | 89 |
One-goal Games: 49
OT games: 20
NBC SPORTS LIVE EXTRA COVERAGE
NBC Sports Live Extra — NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs — will stream 2016 Stanley Cup Playoff coverage via “TV Everywhere,” giving consumers additional value to for their subscription service, and making high quality content available to MVPD customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms. The NBC Sports Live Extra app is powered by Playmaker Media and available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire. For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra.
–NBC SPORTS GROUP–
