FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, June 8th, 2016

DAY 57 – PITTSBURGH PENGUINS HOST SAN JOSE SHARKS IN GAME 5 OF STANLEY CUP FINAL TOMORROW AT 8 P.M. ET ON NBC

Penguins Lead Sharks 3-1; Can Win 2016 Stanley Cup Final Tomorrow on NBC

NBC Sports’ 10 Things You May Not Know About The 2016 Stanley Cup Final

 

STAMFORD, Conn. – June 8, 2016 – Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins can win the 2016 Stanley Cup Final with a Game 5 win against Joe Thornton and the San Jose Sharks tomorrow night at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. Coverage begins at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN with NHL Live on-site at CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

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 tomorrow night’s Game 5. Pittsburgh took a 3-1 series lead on Monday with a 3-1 win in Game 4 in San Jose, as Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal of the series, and Phil Kessel added a pair of assists.

Ahead of tomorrow night’s potential Stanley Cup-clinching Game 5, NBC Sports presents 10 things you may not know about the 2016 Stanley Cup Final.

 

  • Numerous NBC Sports NHL game commentators and studio analysts have ties to both the Penguins and Sharks. Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick covered the Penguins for the Beaver County Times in the early 1970s, Pierre McGuire won two Stanley Cups as an assistant coach with the Penguins in 1991 and 1992, and Eddie Olczyk was Sidney Crosby’s first NHL head coach with the Penguins during the 2005-06 season. In addition, Brian Boucher and Jeremy Roenick played for the Sharks, and Roenick and Anson Carter played alongside Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan during their NHL careers;

 

  • If Pittsburgh wins the Final in either Game 5 or 7 at home, it would mark the first title won by the Penguins, Steelers, or Pirates within the Pittsburgh city limits since 1960. NBC televised the most-recent title won at home by the three teams – the 1960 World Series – as the Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski clinched the series with a dramatic Game 7 walk-off home run against the New York Yankees at Forbes Field;

 

  • NHL Live pre-game coverage during the 2016 Stanley Cup Final has featured special guests, including Metallica singer/guitarist and Sharks fan James Hetfield; Olympic Gold Medalist and Sharks fan Kristi Yamaguchi; Penguins Assistant GM and Stanley Cup winner Bill Guerin; 1991 Stanley Cup winner and Penguins player development coach Mark Recchi; and stars of Slap Shot Steve Carlson and Dave Hanson;

 

  • The Penguins will play in NBC Sports’ first and last nationally televised games of the 2015-16 campaign. NBCSN televised the inaugural Kraft Hockeyville USA preseason game from the Cambria County War Memorial Arena in Johnstown, Pa., featuring the Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning, on Sept. 29, 2015;

 

  • The overtime game-winning goals by Pittsburgh’s Conor Sheary and San Jose’s Joonas Donskoi in Games 2 and 3, respectively, were the fifth and sixth overtime goals scored by rookies in the Stanley Cup Final, and the first since 1986 (Brian Skrudland; Montreal);

 

  • The Sharks’ Game 3 win meant that there would be no sweeps in any round the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. This marks just the third postseason since the introduction of the current format in 1987 without a sweep (1991 and 2002);

 

  • Game 4 on NBC was the highest-rated Sharks game ever on the networks of NBCUniversal in the SF/SJ/OAK market (7.3), and was the highest-rated Penguins game on the networks of NBCUniversal in Pittsburgh (34.3) since Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final (42.2);

 

  • CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pa., which will host Game 5, opened in 2010. Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick handled the play-by-play for the first-ever regular-season game in the building, a 3-2 loss to the Flyers on Oct. 7, 2010, that was televised on VERSUS (now NBCSN);

 

  • Top 2016 NHL Draft U.S. prospects Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk were interviewed by Liam McHugh and Bob McKenzie on NBCSN’s NHL Live prior to Game 4 on Monday night. NBCSN will present live coverage of the 2016 NHL Draft from Buffalo on Friday, June 24, beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET;

 

  • The 2016 Stanley Cup Final marks the 11th straight Cup Final that NBC Sports has broadcast, and the 10th consecutive Cup Final that Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Pierre McGuire have combined to call as a broadcast team.

 

–NBC SPORTS GROUP–