In the midst of everyone debating whether Kessel, Murray, or Crosby will win the Conn Smythe trophy, everyone forgot there's another candidate: Martin Jones. No one is forgetting him now. Last night he stopped 44 of 46 SOG while the Sharks' offence devoured Matt Murray.

And was that not one hell of a fun game? The Sharks were up 2-0 three minutes in to the game. Two minutes later it was tied 2-2! It was nuts! That's when Jones turned on beast mode and put up a brick wall which some of the best scorers in the NHL could not pass.

It must have been frustrating for the Penguins' fans, reportedly more than 20,000 of them were outside the arena in a giant viewing party.

Anyone else want to bet the "only one viewing party per series" rule will surprisingly go away if there is a Game 7 back in Pittsburgh?

Game 5: San Jose puts the celebration on hold - PensBurgh
The Sharks come out strong in the first period and Martin Jones stands on his head and there will be a Game 6 on Sunday in San Jose

Watch this ridiculous back pass by Couture here.

These plays are so dangerous, but when they work, they are golden. Another angle

The Penguins had their own sweet goal by Malkin. Look at him make a deliberate bank shot off a Sharks player here to get it past Jones.

Murray let in 3 (one Sharks goal was EN) but he also made some good saves, though far fewer because the Sharks had only 22 SOG.

And I don't know WTF this is, but I am leaving it here anyway

The Draft

Follow along with SB Nation's 2016 NHL Mock Draft
With the obvious top 6 done, today it gets interesting with picks 7, 8, and 9 up for selection by Five For Howling, Die By The Blade, and Eye On The Prize.

2016 NHL Draft Rankings: Tom Hunter’s Final List - Blogger's Tribune
HOT TEAK ALERT! Patrik Laine is not where you think he will be.

Joining the family business - IIHF
William was able to prepare Alexander for the recent NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo "He’s been preparing me a little bit since he went through it two years ago, I’m more prepared myself," Alexander Nylander said. "He’s given me a lot of help and helping me throughout the weeks here."

The Case for Doing the Smart Thing - The Cannon
Don’t overthink this draft, Jarmo. Take Jesse Puljujarvi, and let’s go from there.

Other News

Why I Still Care About the Leafs in June: A Gay Fan's Perspective - mcnally25
June is a pretty exciting month for a lot of reasons. We’re on the brink of summer, the Stanley Cup final is happening, the draft is coming up, and, if you’re queer*, it’s Pride.

Expectations For Marner/Matthews - Editor in Leaf
Is it realistic to think that Marner could outscore Matthews this year – and perhaps lead the Toronto Maple Leafs in scoring?

Are babies as useless as the Steve Dangle Podcast says they are? - PPP
Shame on your Steve, Adam, and Jesse.

Oskar Sundqvist disputes Jimmy Fallon's claim of 'Least Sideburns' - PensBurgh
They're right there! You just gotta... look real close...

Blackhawks, Artemi Panarin have begun talks on contract extension, per report - Second City Hockey
Chicago apparently isn't wasting any time trying to ink Panarin to a long-term contract.

Ads on NHL jerseys ‘absolutely fine’ says MLSE boss - TSN
[Species: Fuck you, MLSE boss.]

Please, Please, Please, Don’t Call Me Athletic - Ben Scrivens
How the puck stays out of the net is less relevant than many people think.

Congratulations to Julie Chu!

Movie written by algorithm turns out to be hilarious and intense - Ars Technica
It sounds like your typical sci-fi B-movie, complete with an incoherent plot. Except Sunspring isn't the product of Hollywood hacks—it was written entirely by an AI. To be specific, it was authored by a recurrent neural network called long short-term memory, or LSTM for short. At least, that's what we'd call it. The AI named itself Benjamin.

Do the Sharks have any chance of winning the Cup?

He who controls the Phil controls the universe.105
Beard power will defeat Phil power.25
From The Branches