title: Ain't No Sunshine

text: Originally released as the B-side to another song called "Harlem", "Ain't No Sunshine" was preferred by disc jockeys, and it became a huge hit, Withers' first. "Harlem" was subsequently covered by The 5th Dimension, who featured it on their "Soul and Inspiration" album and released it as a single.


title: Ain't No Sunshine

text: Withers performed "Ain't No Sunshine" on "The Old Grey Whistle Test". It won the Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1972 and is ranked 285th on "Rolling Stone"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.


title: Ain't No Sunshine

text: In 1971, singer Michael Jackson recorded a rendition of Bill Withers' song for his debut album "Got to Be There" (released in early 1972).


title: Ain't No Sunshine

text: In the UK the song was released as the third (and final) single from the album (after the two singles "Got to Be There" and "Rockin' Robin", a cover of Bobby Day's 1958 song). The song "I Wanna Be Where You Are", which was released as the third single in the US, was on the B-side. It was a hit, peaking in the UK Singles Chart at number 8 for 3 weeks in September 1972. The song was remixed by Benny Blanco for the 2009 release "The Remix Suite". The song's drum break was sampled in "Gonna Love Me" by Teyana Taylor from her second studio album "K.T.S.E.".


title: Ain't No Sunshine

text: The Polish rock band Budka Suflera recorded a cover version of the song in 1974 under the title "Sen o dolinie", with Krzysztof Cugowski providing the lead vocal. The single also appeared on their 1983 compilation album "1974-1984" released by Polskie Nagrania Muza. The Polish lyrics were written by Adam Sikorski. It peaked at number 14 on Poland's LP3 chart in 1983


title: Ain't No Sunshine

text: In November 1991, Australian pop band Rockmelons, (featuring vocalist Deni Hines) released a version as the lead single of their second studio album, "Form 1 Planet" (1992). The version peaked at number five and was certified Gold in Australia. It also peaked at number eight in New Zealand.


title: Ain't No Sunshine

text: The Nylons version was released in 1998 and reached number 53 on the Canadian Adult Contemporary chart. A South African male choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo recorded its own version featuring vocalist Des'ree for their studio album "In Harmony" (1999). As a single, the version peaked at number 42 in the UK.


title: Ain't No Sunshine

text: A heavy metal band Black Label Society covered the song entitled "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" for their 2013 album "Unblackened". As a single, the version peaked at number 42 on the Canadian Rock Chart.


title: Computer file

text: A computer file is a computer resource for recording data in a computer storage device, primarily identified by its file name. Just as words can be written to paper, so can data be written to a computer file. Files can be shared with and transferred between computers and mobile devices via removable media, networks, or the Internet.


title: Computer file

text: Different types of computer files are designed for different purposes. A file may be designed to store an Image, a written message, a video, a computer program, or any wide variety of other kinds of data. Certain files can store multiple data types at once.


title: Computer file

text: By using computer programs, a person can open, read, change, save, and close a computer file. Computer files may be reopened, modified, and copied an arbitrary number of times.


title: Computer file

text: Files are typically organized in a file system, which tracks file locations on the disk and enables user access.


title: Computer file

text: "File" was used in the context of computer storage as early as January 1940. In "Punched Card Methods in Scientific Computation", W. J. Eckert stated, "The first extensive use of the early Hollerith Tabulator in astronomy was made by Comrie. He used it for building a table from successive differences, and for adding large numbers of harmonic terms". "Tables of functions are constructed from their differences with great efficiency, either as printed tables or as a "file of punched cards"."


title: Computer file

text: In February 1950, in a Radio Corporation of America (RCA) advertisement in "Popular Science" magazine describing a new "memory" vacuum tube it had developed, RCA stated: "the results of countless computations can be kept 'on file' and taken out again. Such a 'file' now exists in a 'memory' tube developed at RCA Laboratories. Electronically it retains figures fed into calculating machines, holds them in storage while it memorizes new ones – speeds intelligent solutions through mazes of mathematics."


title: Computer file

text: In early use, the underlying hardware, rather than the contents stored on it, was denominated a "file". For example, the IBM 350 disk drives were denominated "disk files". The introduction, circa 1961, by the Burroughs MCP and the MIT Compatible Time-Sharing System of the concept of a "file system" that managed several virtual "files" on one storage device is the origin of the contemporary denotation of the word. Although the contemporary "register file" demonstrates the early concept of files, its use has greatly decreased.


title: Computer file

text: On most modern operating systems, files are organized into one-dimensional arrays of bytes. The format of a file is defined by its content since a file is solely a container for data.


title: Computer file

text: On some platforms the format is indicated by its filename extension, specifying the rules for how the bytes must be organized and interpreted meaningfully. For example, the bytes of a plain text file ( in Windows) are associated with either ASCII or UTF-8 characters, while the bytes of image, video, and audio files are interpreted otherwise. Most file types also allocate a few bytes for metadata, which allows a file to carry some basic information about itself.


title: Computer file

text: Some file systems can store arbitrary (not interpreted by the file system) file-specific data outside of the file format, but linked to the file, for example extended attributes or forks. On other file systems this can be done via sidecar files or software-specific databases. All those methods, however, are more susceptible to loss of metadata than container and archive file formats.


title: Computer file

text: At any instant in time, a file has a specific size, normally expressed as a number of bytes, that indicates how much storage is occupied by the file. In most modern operating systems the size can be any non-negative whole number of bytes up to a system limit. Many older operating systems kept track only of the number of blocks or tracks occupied by a file on a physical storage device. In such systems, software employed other methods to track the exact byte count (e.g., CP/M used a special control character, Ctrl-Z, to signal the end of text files).


title: Computer file

text: The general definition of a file does not require that its size have any real meaning, however, unless the data within the file happens to correspond to data within a pool of persistent storage. A special case is a zero byte file; these files can be newly created files that have not yet had any data written to them, or may serve as some kind of flag in the file system, or are accidents (the results of aborted disk operations). For example, the file to which the link points in a typical Unix-like system probably has a defined size that seldom changes. Compare this with which is also a file, but as a character special file, its size is not meaningful.


title: Computer file

text: Information in a computer file can consist of smaller packets of information (often called "records" or "lines") that are individually different but share some common traits. For example, a payroll file might contain information concerning all the employees in a company and their payroll details; each record in the payroll file concerns just one employee, and all the records have the common trait of being related to payroll—this is very similar to placing all payroll information into a specific filing cabinet in an office that does not have a computer. A text file may contain lines of text, corresponding to printed lines on a piece of paper. Alternatively, a file may contain an arbitrary binary image (a blob) or it may contain an executable.


title: Computer file

text: The way information is grouped into a file is entirely up to how it is designed. This has led to a plethora of more or less standardized file structures for all imaginable purposes, from the simplest to the most complex. Most computer files are used by computer programs which create, modify or delete the files for their own use on an as-needed basis. The programmers who create the programs decide what files are needed, how they are to be used and (often) their names.


title: Computer file

text: In some cases, computer programs manipulate files that are made visible to the computer user. For example, in a word-processing program, the user manipulates document files that the user personally names. Although the content of the document file is arranged in a format that the word-processing program understands, the user is able to choose the name and location of the file and provide the bulk of the information (such as words and text) that will be stored in the file.


title: Computer file

text: Many applications pack all their data files into a single file called an archive file, using internal markers to discern the different types of information contained within. The benefits of the archive file are to lower the number of files for easier transfer, to reduce storage usage, or just to organize outdated files. The archive file must often be unpacked before next using.


title: Computer file

text: Files on a computer can be created, moved, modified, grown, shrunk (truncated), and deleted. In most cases, computer programs that are executed on the computer handle these operations, but the user of a computer can also manipulate files if necessary. For instance, Microsoft Word files are normally created and modified by the Microsoft Word program in response to user commands, but the user can also move, rename, or delete these files directly by using a file manager program such as Windows Explorer (on Windows computers) or by command lines (CLI).


title: Computer file

text: In Unix-like systems, user space programs do not operate directly, at a low level, on a file. Only the kernel deals with files, and it handles all user-space interaction with files in a manner that is transparent to the user-space programs. The operating system provides a level of abstraction, which means that interaction with a file from user-space is simply through its filename (instead of its inode). For example, rm "filename" will not delete the file itself, but only a link to the file. There can be many links to a file, but when they are all removed, the kernel considers that file's memory space free to be reallocated. This free space is commonly considered a security risk (due to the existence of file recovery software). Any secure-deletion program uses kernel-space (system) functions to wipe the file's data.


title: Computer file

text: File moves within a file system complete almost immediately because the data content does not need to be rewritten. Only the paths need to be changed.


title: Computer file

text: When moving files between devices or partitions, some file managing software deletes each selected file from the source directory individually after being transferred, while other software deletes all files at once only after every file has been transferred.


title: Computer file

text: With the codice_1 command for instance, the former method is used when selecting files individually, possibly with the use of wildcards (example: codice_2, while the latter method is used when selecting entire directories (example: codice_3). Microsoft Windows Explorer uses the former method for mass storage filemoves, but the latter method using Media Transfer Protocol, as described in .


title: Computer file

text: The former method (individual deletion from source) has the benefit that space is released from the source device or partition imminently after the transfer has begun, meaning after the first file is finished. With the latter method, space is only freed after the transfer of the entire selection has finished.


title: Computer file

text: If an incomplete file transfer with the latter method is aborted unexpectedly, perhaps due to an unexpected power-off, system halt or disconnection of a device, no space will have been freed up on the source device or partition. The user would need to merge the remaining files from the source, including the incompletely written (truncated) last file.


title: Computer file

text: With the individual deletion method, the file moving software also does not need to cumulatively keep track of all files finished transferring for the case that a user manually aborts the file transfer. A file manager using the latter (afterwards deletion) method will have to only delete the files from the source directory that have already finished transferring.


title: Computer file

text: In modern computer systems, files are typically accessed using names (filenames). In some operating systems, the name is associated with the file itself. In others, the file is anonymous, and is pointed to by links that have names. In the latter case, a user can identify the name of the link with the file itself, but this is a false analogue, especially where there exists more than one link to the same file.


title: Computer file

text: Files (or links to files) can be located in directories. However, more generally, a directory can contain either a list of files or a list of links to files. Within this definition, it is of paramount importance that the term "file" includes directories. This permits the existence of directory hierarchies, i.e., directories containing sub-directories. A name that refers to a file within a directory must be typically unique. In other words, there must be no identical names within a directory. However, in some operating systems, a name may include a specification of type that means a directory can contain an identical name for more than one type of object such as a directory and a file.


title: Computer file

text: In environments in which a file is named, a file's name and the path to the file's directory must uniquely identify it among all other files in the computer system—no two files can have the same name and path. Where a file is anonymous, named references to it will exist within a namespace. In most cases, any name within the namespace will refer to exactly zero or one file. However, any file may be represented within any namespace by zero, one or more names.


title: Computer file

text: Any string of characters may be a well-formed name for a file or a link depending upon the context of application. Whether or not a name is well-formed depends on the type of computer system being used. Early computers permitted only a few letters or digits in the name of a file, but modern computers allow long names (some up to 255 characters) containing almost any combination of unicode letters or unicode digits, making it easier to understand the purpose of a file at a glance. Some computer systems allow file names to contain spaces; others do not. Case-sensitivity of file names is determined by the file system. Unix file systems are usually case sensitive and allow user-level applications to create files whose names differ only in the case of characters. Microsoft Windows supports multiple file systems, each with different policies regarding case-sensitivity. The common FAT file system can have multiple files whose names differ only in case if the user uses a disk editor to edit the file names in the directory entries. User applications, however, will usually not allow the user to create multiple files with the same name but differing in case.


title: Computer file

text: Most computers organize files into hierarchies using folders, directories, or catalogs. The concept is the same irrespective of the terminology used. Each folder can contain an arbitrary number of files, and it can also contain other folders. These other folders are referred to as subfolders. Subfolders can contain still more files and folders and so on, thus building a tree-like structure in which one "master folder" (or "root folder" — the name varies from one operating system to another) can contain any number of levels of other folders and files. Folders can be named just as files can (except for the root folder, which often does not have a name). The use of folders makes it easier to organize files in a logical way.


title: Computer file

text: When a computer allows the use of folders, each file and folder has not only a name of its own, but also a path, which identifies the folder or folders in which a file or folder resides. In the path, some sort of special character—such as a slash—is used to separate the file and folder names. For example, in the illustration shown in this article, the path uniquely identifies a file called in a folder called , which in turn is contained in a folder called . The folder and file names are separated by slashes in this example; the topmost or root folder has no name, and so the path begins with a slash (if the root folder had a name, it would precede this first slash).


title: Computer file

text: Many computer systems use extensions in file names to help identify what they contain, also known as the file type. On Windows computers, extensions consist of a dot (period) at the end of a file name, followed by a few letters to identify the type of file. An extension of identifies a text file; a extension identifies any type of document or documentation, commonly in the Microsoft Word file format; and so on. Even when extensions are used in a computer system, the degree to which the computer system recognizes and heeds them can vary; in some systems, they are required, while in other systems, they are completely ignored if they are presented.


title: Computer file

text: Many modern computer systems provide methods for protecting files against accidental and deliberate damage. Computers that allow for multiple users implement file permissions to control who may or may not modify, delete, or create files and folders. For example, a given user may be granted only permission to read a file or folder, but not to modify or delete it; or a user may be given permission to read and modify files or folders, but not to execute them. Permissions may also be used to allow only certain users to see the contents of a file or folder. Permissions protect against unauthorized tampering or destruction of information in files, and keep private information confidential from unauthorized users.


title: Computer file

text: Another protection mechanism implemented in many computers is a "read-only flag." When this flag is turned on for a file (which can be accomplished by a computer program or by a human user), the file can be examined, but it cannot be modified. This flag is useful for critical information that must not be modified or erased, such as special files that are used only by internal parts of the computer system. Some systems also include a "hidden flag" to make certain files invisible; this flag is used by the computer system to hide essential system files that users should not alter.


title: Computer file

text: Any file that has any useful purpose must have some physical manifestation. That is, a file (an abstract concept) in a real computer system must have a real physical analogue if it is to exist at all.


title: Computer file

text: In physical terms, most computer files are stored on some type of data storage device. For example, most operating systems store files on a hard disk. Hard disks have been the ubiquitous form of non-volatile storage since the early 1960s. Where files contain only temporary information, they may be stored in RAM. Computer files can be also stored on other media in some cases, such as magnetic tapes, compact discs, Digital Versatile Discs, Zip drives, USB flash drives, etc. The use of solid state drives is also beginning to rival the hard disk drive.


title: Computer file

text: In Unix-like operating systems, many files have no associated physical storage device. Examples are and most files under directories , and . These are virtual files: they exist as objects within the operating system kernel.


title: Computer file

text: As seen by a running user program, files are usually represented either by a file control block or by a file handle. A file control block (FCB) is an area of memory which is manipulated to establish a filename etc. and then passed to the operating system as a parameter; it was used by older IBM operating systems and early PC operating systems including CP/M and early versions of MS-DOS. A file handle is generally either an opaque data type or an integer; it was introduced in around 1961 by the ALGOL-based Burroughs MCP running on the Burroughs B5000 but is now ubiquitous.


title: Computer file

text: When a file is said to be corrupted, it is because its contents have been saved to the computer in such a way that they cannot be properly read, either by a human or by software. Depending on the extent of the damage, the original file can sometimes be recovered, or at least partially understood. A file may be created corrupt, or it may be corrupted at a later point through overwriting.


title: Computer file

text: There are many ways by which a file can become corrupted. Most commonly, the issue happens in the process of writing the file to a disk. For example, if an image-editing program unexpectedly crashes while saving an image, that file may be corrupted because the program could not save its entirety. The program itself might warn the user that there was an error, allowing for another attempt at saving the file. Some other examples of reasons for which files become corrupted include:


title: Computer file

text: Although file corruption usually happens accidentally, it may also be done on purpose as a mean of procrastination, as to fool someone else into thinking an assignment was ready at an earlier date, potentially gaining time to finish said assignment. There are services that provide on demand file corruption, which essentially fill a given file with random data so that it cannot be opened or read, yet still seems legitimate.


title: Computer file

text: One of the most effective countermeasures for unintentional file corruption is backing up important files. In the event of an important file becoming corrupted, the user can simply replace it with the backed up version.


title: Computer file

text: When computer files contain information that is extremely important, a "back-up" process is used to protect against disasters that might destroy the files. Backing up files simply means making copies of the files in a separate location so that they can be restored if something happens to the computer, or if they are deleted accidentally.


title: Computer file

text: There are many ways to back up files. Most computer systems provide utility programs to assist in the back-up process, which can become very time-consuming if there are many files to safeguard. Files are often copied to removable media such as writable CDs or cartridge tapes. Copying files to another hard disk in the same computer protects against failure of one disk, but if it is necessary to protect against failure or destruction of the entire computer, then copies of the files must be made on other media that can be taken away from the computer and stored in a safe, distant location.


title: Computer file

text: The grandfather-father-son backup method automatically makes three back-ups; the grandfather file is the oldest copy of the file and the son is the current copy.


title: Computer file

text: The way a computer organizes, names, stores and manipulates files is globally referred to as its "file system." Most computers have at least one file system. Some computers allow the use of several different file systems. For instance, on newer MS Windows computers, the older FAT-type file systems of MS-DOS and old versions of Windows are supported, in addition to the NTFS file system that is the normal file system for recent versions of Windows. Each system has its own advantages and disadvantages. Standard FAT allows only eight-character file names (plus a three-character extension) with no spaces, for example, whereas NTFS allows much longer names that can contain spaces. You can call a file "" in NTFS, but in FAT you would be restricted to something like (unless you were using VFAT, a FAT extension allowing long file names).


title: Computer file

text: File manager programs are utility programs that allow users to manipulate files directly. They allow you to move, create, delete and rename files and folders, although they do not actually allow you to read the contents of a file or store information in it. Every computer system provides at least one file-manager program for its native file system. For example, File Explorer (formerly Windows Explorer) is commonly used in Microsoft Windows operating systems, and Nautilus is common under several distributions of Linux.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs was the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL). The playoffs began on August 1, 2020, and concluded on September 28, 2020, with the Tampa Bay Lightning winning their second Stanley Cup in franchise history, defeating the Dallas Stars four games to two in the Stanley Cup Finals. The playoffs were originally scheduled to begin in April, a few days after the 2019–20 regular season, and end in June. However, on March 12, the regular season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: On May 26, commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed that the league was going to use a 24-team playoff format to finish the season, conducted in two or more host cities as "hubs" with players placed under strict health protocols, quarantined from the general public, and all games played behind closed doors with no fans admitted. On July 10, the league ratified an agreement for its protocols with the NHL Players Association (NHLPA). The Eastern Conference played its early-round games at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, while the early rounds for the Western Conference, as well as the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals, were played at Rogers Place in Edmonton. This was the first Stanley Cup playoffs to be contested entirely in Canada since 1925, as well as the first time that the Stanley Cup was awarded on Canadian soil since 2011.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Boston Bruins made the playoffs as the Presidents' Trophy winners with the most points (i.e. best record) during the regular season. The Pittsburgh Penguins increased their postseason appearance streak to fourteen seasons, the longest active streak. For the first time since 1996, all California-based teams, the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks, missed the playoffs. Six Canadian-based teams made the postseason this year, the most since 1993. It also marked the first time since 1986 that all four teams in cities based in Western Canada made the playoffs. In addition, it marked the first time that both the Winnipeg Jets and Arizona Coyotes (previously the original Jets, before relocation) qualified for the playoffs in the same season, as well as the first time that the Coyotes made the playoffs since 2012. For the first time since 1999, all former World Hockey Association teams (Edmonton Oilers, Arizona Coyotes, Carolina Hurricanes, and Colorado Avalanche) made the playoffs.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Game two of the Second Round series between the Vancouver Canucks and Vegas Golden Knights was the 94th game of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs, surpassing the previous single-year record of 93 established in 2014. On September 17, the Tampa Bay Lightning became the first team in NHL history to win the clinching game of their first three series in overtime. The Dallas Stars set the record for the most games played in one playoff year (27) in game six of the Stanley Cup Finals; the previous record (26) was shared by the 1987 Philadelphia Flyers, 2004 Calgary Flames, 2014 Los Angeles Kings, 2015 Tampa Bay Lightning and 2019 St. Louis Blues. Game six of the Stanley Cup Finals was also the 130th game of the playoffs, setting the all-time record for most games played in one playoff year.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: All Second Round games that were originally scheduled on August 27 and 28 were postponed due to a wildcat strike, in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: On May 26, the league announced that 24 teams (12 per conference) advanced to this special conference-based playoff tournament with teams being seeded based on their points percentage at the time the regular season was suspended on March 12. The top four teams in each conference played in a separate Seeding Round-robin to determine the seeding in the First Round. These games were played with regular season overtime and shootout rules, with the clubs accumulating points like the regular season, and any ties in the Round-robin standings were broken by the regular season points percentage. The eight lower seeded teams in each conference played in the Qualifying Round, a best-of-five series with playoff overtime rules. The winners of these series advanced to face one of the Round-Robin teams in the First Round.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: On May 28, the NHL stated that both the Round-robin and the Qualifying Round were to be counted under playoff records, on the same day that the league declared the winners of the stats-based regular-season NHL awards. The league then announced on June 4 that all series after the Qualifying Round would remain a best-of-seven series but were re-seeded after each round. With the ratification of an extension to the collective bargaining agreement on July 10, the league also announced that all teams participating in the Qualifying Round are considered to have made the playoffs and have participated in a playoff series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The playoffs were held in two "hub" cities both in Canada; Edmonton, Alberta at Rogers Place, and Toronto, Ontario at Scotiabank Arena. They were announced as host cities on July 10 with the NHLPA's ratification of the Return to Play plan, and an extension to its collective bargaining agreement with the NHLPA through the 2025–26 season. From the start of the playoffs through to the end of the Second Round, each city hosted all of the games for one conference: the Eastern Conference teams played in Toronto, and the Western Conference teams played in Edmonton. All games in the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals were played in Edmonton.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Edmonton and Toronto were among a shortlist of ten host cities announced on May 26, along with Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Saint Paul, and Vancouver. After the league cut the shortlist down to six cities on June 22, Las Vegas and Vancouver were considered to be the frontrunners to host games. Shortly after this, Vancouver dropped out of consideration on June 25, after health officials in British Columbia were unable to agree with the league on a protocol in the event that a player tested positive for COVID-19. Las Vegas and the other U.S. cities were passed over after Nevada and other U.S. states began to experience a spike in COVID-19 cases in late June; it was reported that the NHL originally intended to have one host city in Canada and one in the United States.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Each group of teams played inside what was called a "bubble". A secure perimeter was constructed around both venues with various amenities, with Edmonton's covering four hotels in the Ice District and Rogers Place's existing practice facilities, and Toronto's split between Exhibition Place (Hotel X, BMO Field, & Coca-Cola Coliseum) and the Fairmont Royal York hotel (which is connected to Scotiabank Arena). Both sites included fitness, dining and recreation areas. Restaurants were operating within the secure zones, and players were able to order outside food via concierge and local food delivery services. The games were held behind closed doors, but non-participating players were allowed to watch games. A large "stage" with multiple video screens was constructed to cover the empty stands for both teams in each end of the arena, and in-arena presentation was customized for each team when they were the designated home team (including use of their goal music, among other features). The league implemented a compressed playoff schedule with more back-to-back games than usual to help address "bubble fatigue" among the players, who had to live with monotonous daily routines away from their families for several weeks.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Although the general public was not permitted within the direct vicinity of the arena or inside, Oilers Entertainment Group announced plans to set up an outdoor "FanFest" at the site of a former casino near Rogers Place with approval of municipal and provincial health officials, including a "drive-in" screening games and a beer garden.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Under the Return to Play plan that was ratified on July 10, any player could opt out of the restart without providing a reason and without any penalty, provided that they had informed their team by July 13, when formal training camps opened. COVID-19 tests were then to be administered to players and staff every other day. On July 19, testing increased to three times 48 hours apart. The identities of those who tested positive were not released to the public, they would then be isolated and designated with the generic description "unfit for play" until they were medically cleared, and all injury updates were handled by the league instead of the teams.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Teams arrived at their hub city on July 26; they were isolated in a "secure zone" consisting of their hotels, restaurants, practice facilities, and the arena. Testing was done every day, as well as daily temperature and symptom checks. Individuals had to wear masks outside their hotel rooms except when eating, exercising, or while on the ice or bench. Other exceptions included during interviews with appropriate social distancing.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Under the "Quarantine Act", all travellers entering Canada at the time were required to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival. The NHL received an exception to this policy for its players and staff, as long as they remained within the secure zone and were restricted from access to or by the general public. Anybody who left the bubble without prior approval could have faced a mandatory 14-day quarantine or been barred from returning. Teams could have also faced fines or loss of draft picks.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: During the conclusions of each Qualifying Round series, teams exchanged fist bumps instead of the traditional handshakes. As players and coaches continued to test negative for COVID-19, the traditional handshake lines returned at the end of each First Round series. After entering the bubble, the league had no personnel test positive for the virus during the playoffs.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: In each round, the highest remaining seed in each conference is matched against the lowest remaining seed. The higher-seeded team is awarded home ice advantage. In the Stanley Cup Finals, home ice was determined based on regular season points percentage. Each best-of-five series followed a 2–2–1 format: the higher-seeded team was the designated as the host for games one and two (and game five, if necessary), and the lower-seeded team was the host for games three (and game four, if necessary). Each best-of-seven series followed a 2–2–1–1–1 format: the higher-seeded team was the host for games one and two (and games five and seven, if necessary), and the lower-seeded team was the host for games three and four (and game six, if necessary). In the First Round, the top four teams in each conference were seeded one through four based on their final standings from the Round-robin. The teams that advanced from the Qualifying Round were re-seeded five through eight based on their regular season points percentage.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The top four playoff teams in each conference played in a round-robin tournament against each other to determine the final playoff seeding. The Round-robin games were played with regular season overtime and shootout rules, with the teams accumulating points like the regular season, and any ties in the round-robin standings were broken by the regular-season points percentage instead of regulation wins.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The bottom eight playoff teams in each conference played in a best-of-five series to determine which four teams advanced to the First Round. The Qualifying Round games were played with Stanley Cup playoff overtime rules. Seeding was determined by regular season points percentage.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: During the first game of Round-robin play, the Flyers' Carter Hart made 34 saves against the Bruins in a 4–1 victory. In the game between Washington and Tampa Bay, with the game forced to go to a shootout (the first in Stanley Cup playoff history), Nikita Kucherov's shot got past Braden Holtby for the winning goal in a 3–2 triumph. The Lightning then faced the Bruins, and Tyler Johnson's goal at 18:33 of the third period won the game for Tampa Bay 3–2. In the Flyers' match-up against the Capitals, Scott Laughton's two goals assisted Philadelphia's 3–1 victory. Between the top two seeds, the Flyers defeated the Lightning 4–1 to take the first seed riding on Nicolas Aube-Kubel's two goals in the first period. Battling out for the third spot, Holtby made 30 saves for Washington in their victory, defeating the Presidents' Trophy-winning Boston Bruins 2–1.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: During the first game between Colorado and St. Louis, Nazem Kadri scored with 0.1 remaining on the clock for the Avalanche emerging victorious 2–1. Vegas staged a two-goal comeback in their game against Dallas, coming back from 3–1 down to win 5–3. Avalanche goalie Pavel Francouz shut out the Stars 4–0 taking a 2–0 record in the Round-robin. Vegas forward Alex Tuch and defenceman Shea Theodore both scored twice in their game against St. Louis, emerging victorious 6–4. Battling out for the first seed, the Avalanche and Golden Knights held a back-and-forth affair until Alex Tuch scored in overtime to give Vegas a 4–3 victory, emerging as the top seed in the Western Conference. The Round-robin finale between the Stars and Blues was to determine the third seed. Joe Pavelski tied the game at one for the Stars with only 32 seconds remaining in regulation, then Denis Gurianov scored the only goal of the shootout to give Dallas the third seed with the 2–1 victory.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Pittsburgh finished fifth in the Eastern Conference with 86 points in 69 games for a points percentage of .623. Montreal gained 71 points in 71 games for a points percentage of .500 to finish twelfth in the Eastern Conference. This was the third playoff meeting between these two teams, with Montreal winning both previous series. They last met in the 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinals, which Montreal won in seven games. Pittsburgh won two of the three games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Canadiens upset the Penguins in four games. With game one remaining tied 2–2 after the third period, Jeff Petry scored in overtime to give the Canadiens the victory. Among the 38 shots the Penguins forced on Carey Price in game two, Pittsburgh forward Jason Zucker's goal in the third period was the game-winner in their 3–1 triumph. In game three, Jeff Petry's goal in the third period capped a two-goal comeback for Montreal winning the affair 4–3 and taking the series lead. In game four, Carey Price shut the Penguins out 2–0 advancing the team to the First Round of the playoffs.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Carolina finished sixth in the Eastern Conference with 81 points in 68 games for a points percentage of .596. New York gained 79 points in 70 games for a points percentage of .564 to finish eleventh in the Eastern Conference. This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams. New York won all four games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Hurricanes defeated the Rangers in a three-game sweep. In game one, Sebastian Aho and Jaccob Slavin both recorded a goal and an assist in the Hurricanes 3–2 victory. Andrei Svechnikov scored the Hurricanes' first playoff hat trick during game two in a 4–1 victory, giving Carolina the chance to clinch in game three. Aho provided two goals and an assist in game three giving Carolina a 4–1 victory and advancing the team to the First Round of the playoffs.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: New York finished seventh in the Eastern Conference with 80 points in 68 games for a points percentage of .588. Florida gained 78 points in 69 games for a points percentage of .565 to finish tenth in the Eastern Conference. This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams. Their only previous meeting was in the 2016 Eastern Conference First Round, which New York won in six games. New York won all three games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Islanders defeated the Panthers in four games. In game one, a 27-save performance by New York goalie Semyon Varlamov gave the Islanders a 2–1 victory. Game two had Jordan Eberle score two goals for the Islanders, leading the team to a 4–2 victory. The Panthers, in danger of elimination in game three, scored two power-play goals en route to a 3–2 victory to force a fourth game. In the fourth game, Anthony Beauvillier scored twice for New York to send the Islanders to the first round of the playoffs in a 5–1 victory.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Toronto finished eighth in the Eastern Conference with 81 points in 70 games for a points percentage of .579 and 28 . Columbus had the same points percentage, but with 25 they finished ninth. This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams. These teams split their two-game regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Blue Jackets defeated the Maple Leafs in five games. Joonas Korpisalo shut out the Maple Leafs in game one, stopping all 28 shots in a 2–0 victory. Maple Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen responded with his own shut out in game two, stopping 20 shots in the process of a 3–0 victory. Pierre-Luc Dubois's hat-trick, three-goal comeback-fulfilling, overtime goal spurred Columbus' game three victory, winning by a score of 4–3. The Maple Leafs then responded with their own three-goal comeback, all while sporting an extra attacker with the goalie pulled. Auston Matthews then scored the overtime game-winner, the Leafs were victorious by a score of 4–3. In game five, Korpisalo shut the door on the Leafs, stopping all 33 shots in a 3–0 victory to advance to the First Round of the playoffs.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Edmonton finished fifth in the Western Conference with 83 points in 71 games for a points percentage of .585. Chicago gained 72 points in 70 games for a points percentage of .514 to finish twelfth in the Western Conference. This was the fifth playoff meeting between these two teams, with Edmonton winning three of the four previous series. They last met in the 1992 Clarence Campbell Conference Final, which Chicago won in a four-game sweep. Chicago won two of the three games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Blackhawks upset the Oilers in four games. Blackhawks rookie forward Dominik Kubalik scored two goals and assisted three times in game one, resulting in Chicago's 6–4 victory. In game two, Oilers captain Connor McDavid recorded a hat-trick assisted thrice by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tying the series 1–1 in a 6–3 triumph. In game three, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews scored twice, including the game-winner with 1:16 remaining in the game, capping off a 4–3 victory. In game four, Kubalik's goal at 8:30 of the third period proved to be the series-winner, defeating the Oilers 3–2.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Nashville finished sixth in the Western Conference with 78 points in 69 games for a points percentage of .565, winning the tiebreaker against Vancouver with 28 . Arizona gained 74 points in 70 games for a points percentage of .529 to finish eleventh in the Western Conference. This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams. Their only previous meeting was in the 2012 Western Conference Semifinals, which Arizona won in five games. These teams split their two-game regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Coyotes defeated the Predators in four games. In game one, the Coyotes jumped out to a 4–1 lead, scoring a power play and a shorthanded goal, and held off a Predators third period rally for the victory. Although the Coyotes had two goals in the final minute of game two, the Predators successfully kept the lead winning 4–2. In game three, Darcy Kuemper stopped 39 of 40 shots and his teammates exploded for three goals in the third period, leading to a 4–1 victory. The Coyotes clinched in game four after much drama; they blew a 2–0 second period lead and allowed Filip Forsberg's tying goal with only 32 seconds left in regulation, but Brad Richardson scored the series-winner 5:27 into overtime.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Vancouver finished seventh in the Western Conference with 78 points in 69 games for a points percentage of .565, losing the tiebreaker against Nashville with 27 . Minnesota gained 77 points in 69 games for a points percentage of .558 to finish tenth in the Western Conference. This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams. Their only previous meeting was in the 2003 Western Conference Semifinals, which Minnesota came back from a 3–1 series deficit to win in seven games. Minnesota won two of the three games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Canucks defeated the Wild in four games. Alex Stalock stopped all 28 shots he faced in Minnesota's game one victory; the Wild won 3–0. In game two, Bo Horvat and Alexander Edler both had a goal and an assist to help Vancouver even the series 1–1 winning the contest 4–3. Quinn Hughes assisted on all three goals and Jacob Markstrom stopped all 27 shots for Vancouver's game three victory. In game four, the Canucks' Christopher Tanev provided two assists and the series-winning overtime goal to send Vancouver to the First Round of the playoffs. Tanev's goal at eleven seconds into overtime tied the second fastest playoff overtime goal.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Calgary finished eighth in the Western Conference with 79 points in 70 games for a points percentage of .564. Winnipeg gained 80 points in 71 games for a points percentage of .563 to finish ninth in the Western Conference. This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams. This was also the first Stanley Cup playoff meeting between these two cities since the 1987 Smythe Division Semifinals. Winnipeg won the only game in this year's regular season series, which was played outdoors.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Flames defeated the Jets in four games. In game one, the Flames scored a power-play goal, then a short-handed goal, followed by another power-play goal in the second period to take a 4–1 victory. The Jets tied the series 1–1 on Connor Hellebuyck's 28-save performance in a 3–2 victory. In game three, Sean Monahan scored a goal and assisted twice in the Flames' 6–2 victory, giving his team a chance to advance in game four. Cam Talbot led the Flames to the series victory in game four, shutting the Jets out by a score of 4–0, stopping all 31 shots in the process.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Philadelphia earned the first seed in the Eastern Conference after finishing 3–0 in the Round-robin; during the regular season they finished with 89 points in 69 games for a .645 points percentage. Montreal earned the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference as the lowest advancing seed from the Qualifying Round by defeating Pittsburgh. This was the seventh playoff meeting between these two teams with both teams splitting the six previous series. They last met in the 2010 Eastern Conference Final, which Philadelphia won in five games. Philadelphia won two of the three games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Flyers eliminated the Canadiens in six games. In game one, Carter Hart made 27 saves against the Canadiens, defeating Montreal 2–1. Prior to game two, Canadiens head coach Claude Julien left the bubble due to an emergency stent being placed in his coronary artery. Kirk Muller was named interim head coach for the remainder of the series while Julien recovered in Montreal. Montreal tied the series after game two on Tomas Tatar and Jesperi Kotkaniemi two goals and Carey Price's 30-save 5–0 shut out victory. In game three, Flyers forward Jakub Voracek scored the only goal of the game and Hart turned away all 23 shots in a 1–0 shutout. Hart continued his shutout into game four, stopping all 29 shots in a 2–0 victory. In game five, Joel Armia scored twice for the Canadiens forcing a sixth game after 5–3 victory. Kevin Hayes had a goal and an assist in game six for the Flyers who defeated the Canadiens 3–2 and advanced to the Second Round.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Tampa Bay earned the second seed in the Eastern Conference after finishing 2–1 in the Round-robin; during the regular season they finished with 92 points in 70 games for a .657 points percentage. Columbus earned the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference as the second lowest advancing seed from the Qualifying Round by defeating Toronto. This was the second consecutive playoff meeting and second postseason match-up between these two teams. Columbus won last year's Eastern Conference First Round playoff meeting in a four-game sweep. Tampa Bay won the only game in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Lightning defeated the Blue Jackets in five games. In game one, with the match tied at two, the teams headed into overtime. At 10:27 of the fifth overtime, Lightning forward Brayden Point ended the 3–2 marathon nearly six hours after its start. It was the fourth-longest game in NHL history. Columbus goalie Joonas Korpisalo made 85 saves during the affair, setting a modern day NHL record for saves in a playoff game. The Blue Jackets tied the series on Pierre-Luc Dubois's two assists and Korpisalo's 36 saves in game two, winning 3–1. In game three, Point continued his point streak scoring the second goal of a 3–2 Lightning victory. Barclay Goodrow and Yanni Gourde both scored and provided an assist for the Lightning in game four, who defeated the Blue Jackets 2–1 and took a 3–1 series lead. In game five, the Blue Jackets overcame a two-goal deficit to take the lead 4–2, however the Lightning were able to tie the score with 1:38 remaining in the game, which required overtime again. At 5:12 of the first overtime, Point's backhanded shot over Korpisalo ended the series, avenging last year's series for the Lightning, and sending them to the Second Round.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Washington earned the third seed in the Eastern Conference after finishing 1–2 in the Round-robin; during the regular season they finished with 90 points in 69 games for a .652 points percentage. New York earned the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference as the second highest advancing seed from the Qualifying Round by defeating Florida. This was the eighth playoff meeting between these two teams with New York winning five of the seven previous series. They last met in the 2015 Eastern Conference First Round, which Washington won in seven games. These teams split the four games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Islanders defeated the Capitals in five games. In game one, Josh Bailey's short-handed goal at 6:52 of the third period put the Islanders ahead 3–2 and with Anthony Beauvillier's goal to make it 4–2 New York held onto their lead to take the victory. Jean-Gabriel Pageau's two assists helped the Islanders take game two 5–2 taking a 2–0 series lead. The Islanders took a 3–0 series lead after game three ended in overtime on Mathew Barzal's goal, giving New York a 2–1 victory. In game four, Alexander Ovechkin's two goals extended the series for the Capitals in a 3–2 victory. Beauvillier's two goals helped shut the door against the Capitals, defeating them 4–0 and advancing to Second Round.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Boston earned the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference after finishing 0–3 in the Round-robin; during the regular season they finished with 100 points in 70 games for a .714 points percentage. Carolina earned the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference as the highest advancing seed from the Qualifying Round by defeating the New York Rangers. This was the second consecutive postseason match-up and sixth playoff meeting overall between these two teams; with Boston winning four of the five previous series. Boston won last year's Eastern Conference Final series in a four-game sweep. Boston won the only game in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Bruins defeated the Hurricanes in five games. Due to game one of the Blue Jackets–Lightning series extending to the fifth overtime, game one of this series was postponed to the next day. The Bruins and Hurricanes had their own overtime marathon in game one with the game tied at three, but the game ended at 1:13 of the second overtime with Patrice Bergeron's goal. In game two, Martin Necas assisted twice for the Hurricanes who defeated the Bruins 3–2. With Tuukka Rask opting to leave the bubble, Jaroslav Halak started game three for the Bruins during which he made 29 saves, defeating the Hurricanes for a 3–1 victory. In game four, the Bruins came back from a 2–0 deficit, scoring four goals in the third period to overtake the Hurricanes by a final score of 4–3. In game five, David Pastrnak assisted twice in a defensive match defeating the Hurricanes 2–1 and advancing to the Second Round.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Vegas earned the first seed in the Western Conference after finishing 3–0 in the Round-robin; during the regular season they finished with 86 points in 71 games for a .606 points percentage. Chicago earned the eighth seed in the Western Conference as the lowest advancing seed from the Qualifying Round by defeating Edmonton. This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams. Vegas won two of the three games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Golden Knights defeated the Blackhawks in five games. In game one, Reilly Smith scored twice and provided an assist for the Golden Knights' 4–1 victory. Smith then ended game two at 7:13 of the first overtime; his team was victorious by a score of 4–3. In game three, the Golden Knights continued their win streak, defeating the Blackhawks 2–1 on Marc-Andre Fleury's 26 saves. Chicago ended Vegas' win streak in game four, riding on Corey Crawford's 48 saves performance to defeat the Golden Knights 3–1. In game five, Alex Tuch scored the go-ahead goal to put Vegas ahead in the third period. From there, they played defensively, turning away seven shots to win 4–3 and advance to the Second Round of the playoffs.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Colorado earned the second seed in the Western Conference after finishing 2–1 in the Round-robin; during the regular season they finished with 92 points in 70 games for a .657 points percentage. Arizona earned the seventh seed in the Western Conference as the second lowest advancing seed from the Qualifying Round by defeating Nashville. This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams. Their only previous meeting was in the 2000 Western Conference Quarterfinals, which Colorado won in five games. These teams split their two-game regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Avalanche defeated the Coyotes in five games. The Avalanche limited the Coyotes to fourteen shots in game one and Philipp Grubauer stopped all of them in their 3–0 victory. In game two, Avalanche right wing Andre Burakovsky scored the game-winning goal with 2:53 remaining in the third period to defeat the Coyotes 3–2. Darcy Kuemper made 49 saves in game three, giving the Coyotes a 4–2 victory and their first win of the series. The Avalanche provided a defensive and offensive approach to game four routing out the Coyotes 7–1 and limiting their shots to 15 giving them a chance to clinch in game five. In game five, the Avalanche continued their dominance in a 7–1 victory, advancing to the Second Round on Nathan MacKinnon's two goals and two assists.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Dallas earned the third seed in the Western Conference after finishing 1–2 in the Round-robin; during the regular season they finished with 82 points in 69 games for a .594 points percentage. Calgary earned the sixth seed in the Western Conference as the second highest advancing seed from the Qualifying Round by defeating Winnipeg. This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams. Their only previous meeting was in the 1981 Stanley Cup Semifinals, which the then-Minnesota North Stars won in six games. Calgary won two of the three games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Stars eliminated the Flames in six games. Dillon Dube scored twice for Calgary in game one as the Flames took the victory 3–2. In game two, with forty seconds remaining, Jamie Oleksiak scored the game-winning goal for Dallas defeating Calgary 5–4. Cam Talbot stopped all 35 shots he faced in game three defeating the Stars 2–0 and taking a 2–1 series lead. In game four, Stars forward Joe Pavelski scored a hat trick and Alexander Radulov's overtime-game winner tied the series 2–2, defeating the Flames 5–4. Anton Khudobin made 28 saves for the Stars in game five, defeating the Flames 2–1 and taking a 3–2 series lead. In game six, the Stars recovered from a 3–0 deficit led by Denis Gurianov's four goals, completing the series with a 7–3 victory.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: St. Louis earned the fourth seed in the Western Conference after finishing 0–3 in the Round-robin; during the regular season they finished with 94 points in 71 games for a .662 points percentage. Vancouver earned the fifth seed in the Western Conference as the highest advancing seed from the Qualifying Round by defeating Minnesota. This was the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams, with Vancouver winning all three previous series. They last met in the 2009 Western Conference Quarterfinals, which Vancouver won in a four-game sweep. Vancouver won two of the three games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Canucks defeated the Blues in six games. Canucks captain Bo Horvat scored twice in game one, defeating the Blues 5–2. Although Blues forward Samuel Blais tied game two with seven seconds remaining, Horvat's second goal of the game at 5:55 of overtime gave the Canucks a 4–3 victory and a 2–0 series lead. In game three, Jake Allen made 39 saves and Brayden Schenn scored the overtime-game winning goal, defeating the Canucks 3–2. The Blues evened up the series in game four, with Ryan O'Reilly scoring twice in a 3–1 victory. Vancouver came back from a two-goal deficit in game five to defeat St. Louis 4–3 and take a 3–2 series lead. Tyler Motte scored twice in game six, sending the Canucks to the Second Round and handily defeating the Blues 6–2.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the fifth playoff meeting between these two teams, with Philadelphia winning three of the four previous series. They last met in the 1987 Patrick Division Finals, which Philadelphia won in seven games. New York won all three games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Islanders upset the Flyers in seven games after giving up a 3–1 series lead. Semyon Varlamov posted his second consecutive shutout in game one, stopping all 29 shots for 4–0 Islanders victory. The Flyers prevented a three-goal comeback from the Islanders in game two with Philippe Myers' goal at 2:41 of overtime to defeat New York 4–3. Varlamov made 26 saves for the Islanders in game three, emerging victorious 3–1. In game four, Brock Nelson scored twice and Thomas Greiss made 36 saves for the Islanders in a 3–2 victory. Although the Flyers dropped a 3–1 lead in the third period of game five, they forced a sixth game on Scott Laughton's overtime goal to win 4–3. In game six, the Flyers held a back-and-forth affair reaching the second overtime where Ivan Provorov's goal at 15:03 kept Philadelphia's season alive, defeating New York 5–4. In game seven, Brock Nelson had a goal and two assists and Greiss stopped all sixteen shots he faced in a 4–0 shutout to send the Islanders to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in 27 years.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the third playoff series between these two teams with both teams splitting the two previous series. They last met in the 2018 Eastern Conference Second Round, which Tampa Bay won in five games. Tampa Bay won the Round-robin game between these two teams earlier in this year's playoffs 3–2. Tampa Bay won three of four games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Lightning defeated the Bruins in five games. Jaroslav Halak made 35 saves for the Bruins in game one who defeated the Lightning 3–2. In game two, Ondrej Palat scored the overtime-winning goal for Tampa Bay, tying the series 1–1 in a 4–3. victory. The Lightning had an offensive outburst in game three, scoring seven goals against Boston in a 7–1 rout. Palat scored twice for the Lightning in game four, defeating the Bruins 3–1 and taking a 3–1 series lead. In game five, Victor Hedman ended the series 14:10 into double-overtime for the Lightning, defeating the Bruins 3–2 and advancing to the Eastern Conference Final.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams. These two teams split their two-game regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Golden Knights defeated the Canucks in seven games after giving up a 3–1 series lead. In game one, Robin Lehner stopped all 26 shots he faced as the Golden Knights defeated the Canucks 5–0. Jacob Markstrom made 38 saves for the Canucks in game two, tying the series 1–1 and defeating the Golden Knights 5–2. Lehner posted his second shutout of the series, stopping all 31 shots in game three, defeating the Canucks 3–0. Max Pacioretty scored twice and provided an assist for the Golden Knights in game four, who defeated the Canucks 5–3 to take a 3–1 series lead. In game five, rookie goaltender Thatcher Demko made 42 saves for the Canucks, defeating the Golden Knights 2–1 to force a sixth game. Demko shut out the Golden Knights in game six, stopping all 48 shots he faced in a 4–0 victory. In game seven, the Golden Knights limited the Canucks' shots to fourteen throughout three periods, shutting out Vancouver 3–0 and advancing to the Western Conference Final.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the fifth playoff series between these two teams, with both teams splitting the four previous series. They last met in the 2006 Western Conference Quarterfinals, which Colorado won in five games. Colorado won the Round-robin game between these two teams earlier in this year's playoffs 4–0. Dallas won all four games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Stars defeated the Avalanche in seven games after giving up a 3–1 series lead. In game one, Alexander Radulov scored twice, also providing an assist, in a 5–3 victory for the Stars. After falling behind 2–0 in game two, the Stars rallied past the Avalanche, scoring four goals in the second period and defeating Colorado 5–2. In game three, the Avalanche spoiled a two-goal comeback by the Stars, scoring three straight in the third period with 7:58 remaining to defeat Dallas 6–4. The Stars held off a late rally by the Avalanche in game four, keeping the score at 5–4 and taking a 3–1 series lead with the victory. In game five, the Avalanche had a first period offensive outburst, scoring five goals, including four within a span of 2:36 (one second from equalling the league record for the fastest four goals by one team in a game in playoff history) to win 6–3. Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to fourteen games, scoring a goal and recording an assist in game six to defeat the Stars 4–1 and force a seventh game. In game seven, the two teams battled it throughout three periods scoring four against each other, but 7:24 into overtime Joel Kiviranta's hat trick goal gave the Stars the victory, advancing to the Western Conference Final with a 5–4 victory.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the third playoff meeting between these two teams with Tampa Bay winning both previous series. They last met in the 2016 Eastern Conference Second Round, which Tampa Bay won in five games. This was Tampa Bay's sixth Conference Finals appearance. They last went to the Conference Finals in 2018, which they lost to the Washington Capitals in seven games. This was New York's fifth appearance in the Conference Finals. They last went to the Conference Finals in 1993, which they lost against the Montreal Canadiens in five games. New York won two of the three games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Lightning defeated the Islanders in six games. In game one, Lightning forwards Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov both had five points in an 8–2 rout: Point had two goals and three assists and Kucherov scored a goal and assisted four times. Kucherov scored the game-winning goal with nine seconds remaining in game two to give the Lightning a 2–1 victory. After giving up a 3–1 lead in game three, Brock Nelson's goal with 3:25 left put the Islanders ahead, emerging victorious 5–3. In game four, three Lightning players had two points and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy provided an assist in Tampa Bay's 4–1 victory to take a 3–1 series lead. In game five, Islanders forward Jordan Eberle scored at 12:30 of double overtime to win the game 2–1 and extend the series to a sixth game. Anthony Cirelli's goal at 13:18 of the first overtime period in game six gave the Lightning a 2–1 victory sending Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2015.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the first playoff series between these two teams. Vegas won their Round-robin game between these two teams earlier in this year's playoffs 5–3. This was Vegas' second appearance in the Conference Finals. Their only previous Conference Finals was in 2018, which they won against the Winnipeg Jets in five games. This was Dallas's seventh Conference Finals appearance. They last went to the Conference Finals in 2008, which they lost to the Detroit Red Wings in six games. These teams split their two games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Stars defeated the Golden Knights in five games. Anton Khudobin made 25 saves and John Klingberg scored the only goal of game one for the Stars, shutting out Vegas 1–0. Robin Lehner posted his own shutout in game two, stopping all 24 shots in the Golden Knights' 3–0 victory. In game three, Alexander Radulov gave the Stars a 2–1 series lead after his goal 31 seconds into overtime ensured Dallas a 3–2 victory. Khudobin made 32 saves in game four, leading the Stars to a 2–1 win. In game five, the Stars came back from a 2–0 deficit in the third period to force overtime and at 3:36 of the first overtime, Denis Gurianov scored to send the Stars to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 20 years with a 3–2 victory.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams. Tampa Bay made their third Finals appearance. They last went to the Finals in 2015, which they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games. Dallas made their fifth appearance in the Finals. They last went to the Finals in 2000, which they lost to the New Jersey Devils in six games. Dallas won both games in this year's regular season series.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This is a combined table of the top five goaltenders based on goals against average and the top five goaltenders based on save percentage, with at least 420 minutes played. The table is sorted by GAA, and the criteria for inclusion are bolded.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: On August 26, 2020, various professional athletes in the U.S began to go on strike from their respective sports contests in response to the August 23 police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the protests which followed. These strikes began with the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Other players in the NBA, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and Women's National Basketball Association soon followed suit and also decided not to play their August 26 games.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: When these cancellations south of the border began, NHL players were still isolated in the Edmonton and Toronto bubbles, with game two of the Islanders–Flyers series already in progress when the Bucks first announced their decision to not play. The NHL then continued to play the remaining August 26 games, as NHL players did not take a strong stand for the rest of the day. After pressure brought by the postponement of games by the other leagues, and discussions by players of the Hockey Diversity Alliance such as Evander Kane and Mathew Dumba, the NHLPA announced that they would not play their games on August 27 and August 28. The affected games involved all eight teams remaining: game three between the Flyers and Islanders, game three between the Golden Knights and Canucks, game four between the Lightning and Bruins, and game four between the Avalanche and Stars. The NHL fully supported their decision to postpone the games. On September 1, Dallas Stars president Brad Alberts reported that his team had lost some corporate and personal season ticket holders as a result of the protest.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This marked the sixth postseason under Rogers Media's 12-year contract for Canadian television rights to the NHL. All games were exclusively broadcast by Sportsnet and CBC under the "Hockey Night in Canada" brand, and streamed on Sportsnet Now, CBCSports.ca (for games televised by CBC), or the subscription service Rogers NHL Live.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This also marked the ninth postseason under NBC Sports' current 10-year contract for American rights. All national coverage of games were aired on either NBCSN, the NBC broadcast network, CNBC, NHL Network, or USA Network. During the round-robins, Qualifying Round, and First Round, excluding games exclusively broadcast on NBC, the regional rightsholders of each participating U.S. team will produce local telecasts of their respective games.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Only technical staff such as cameramen and producers were present inside the "bubble". A clean host feed was then sent to media partners to add commentary and surrounding coverage, and interviews with players had to be conducted via videoconferencing. Commentators called the games remotely off of monitors from either their respective studios or from their home arena press boxes. This same arrangement was also done for the radio networks of every team.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: While it was initially stated that all commentators would broadcast remotely, the league eventually allowed a handful of both Sportsnet and NBC commentators and reporters into the hubs to call select games. Chris Cuthbert, who jumped from TSN to Sportsnet during the break in June, and Louie DeBrusk were on-site in Edmonton; and Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson were on-site in Toronto during the Qualifying, First, and Second rounds; they later moved to the Edmonton hub. For NBC, John Forslund, Mike Milbury, and Brian Boucher were initially sent to Toronto; and Pierre McGuire to Edmonton. Milbury was later removed from commentary for the remainder of NBC Sports' coverage after making insensitive comments following the fifth game of the Islanders–Capitals First Round series. Gord Miller later joined Forslund, Milbury, and Boucher at the Toronto bubble and alternated with Forslund on a handful of broadcasts. Most of NBC's other commentators began working games remotely from NBC Sports' studios in Stamford, Connecticut, with NBC planning for "the majority of calls" to eventually be conducted on-site, including the last two rounds of the playoffs in Edmonton. Kenny Albert, who does double duty for both NBC and the New York Rangers radio broadcasts, traveled to the Edmonton bubble after the Rangers were eliminated in the Qualifying Round. Albert called play-by-play of every game of the Western Conference Second Round and the first three games of the Western Conference Finals before leaving the Edmonton bubble to join the NFL on Fox broadcast team. Forslund, Boucher, and Eddie Olczyk later flew to the Edmonton bubble to call the Conference Finals. In the case of NBC lead play-by-play commentator Mike "Doc" Emrick, he was working games from his home studio in Metro Detroit because he is a cancer survivor over the age of 70, and therefore at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Additional cameras were used to provide new angles not usually possible when a crowd is present, and de-emphasize views of the arenas' stands. The telecasts used simulated crowd noise provided by Electronic Arts, combined with recordings of team-specific chants by season ticketholders of participating teams (the latter of which will also be played in-arena). All games carried a five second broadcast delay in order to censor offensive language.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: NBC staff were working on the Toronto broadcasts, while Sportsnet staff did the same with the Edmonton broadcasts. Steve Simmons of the "Toronto Sun" reported that Canadian freelance broadcast workers were upset that NBC personnel were being allowed into Canada to work in Toronto instead of them. The NHL's EVP of communications Gary Meagher stated that splitting production in this manner had been intended "from the onset". Premier of Ontario Doug Ford admitted that plans of NBC's involvement were not part of the early negotiations with the league.


title: 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Average U.S. viewership of the playoff rounds were down by 28% compared to 2019, the lowest to-date over the course of NBC's current broadcast rights contract. Amid expanded competition due to the difference in scheduling, game one of the Stanley Cup Finals was seen by only 2.12 million viewers; with an average of 2.15 million across the entire series, it was the least-watched Stanley Cup Finals since 2007, and down 61% over 2019. Airing opposite a "Monday Night Football" contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens, Game six was seen by 2.88 million viewers, the least-watched series-clinching game since at least 2000.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is a 1986 platform game developed and published by Nintendo as the sequel to "Super Mario Bros." (1985). The games are similar in style and gameplay, with players controlling Mario or Luigi to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. "The Lost Levels" adds a greater level of difficulty and Luigi controls slightly differently from Mario, with reduced ground friction and increased jump height. "The Lost Levels" also introduces obstacles such as poison mushroom power-ups, counterproductive level warps, and mid-air wind gusts. The game has 32 levels across eight worlds and 20 bonus levels.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: "Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels" was originally released in Japan for the Famicom Disk System as Super Mario Bros.2 on June 3, 1986, following the success of its predecessor. It was developed by Nintendo R&D4the team led by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamotoand designed for players who had mastered the original. Nintendo of America deemed it too difficult for its North American audience and instead chose another game as the region's "Super Mario Bros. 2": a retrofitted version of the Japanese "Doki Doki Panic". The game was renamed "The Lost Levels" and first released internationally in the 1993 Super Nintendo Entertainment System compilation "Super Mario All-Stars". It was ported to the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console (Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U), and Nintendo Switch.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: Reviewers viewed "Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels" as an extension of the previous game, especially its difficulty progression. Journalists appreciated the game's challenge when spectating speedruns and recognized the game as a precursor to the franchise's Kaizo subculture in which fans create and share ROM hacks featuring nearly impossible levels. This sequel gave Luigi his first character traits and introduced the poison mushroom item, which has since been used throughout the "Mario" franchise. "The Lost Levels" was the most popular game on the Disk System, for which it sold about 2.5million copies. It is remembered among the most difficult Nintendo games.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: "The Lost Levels" is a 2D side-scrolling platform game similar in style and gameplay to the original 1985 "Super Mario Bros.", save for an increase in difficulty. As in the original, Mario (or Luigi) ventures to rescue the Princess from Bowser. The player jumps between platforms, avoids enemy and inanimate obstacles, finds hidden secrets (such as warp zones and vertical vines), and collects power-ups like the mushroom (which makes Mario grow), the Fire Flower (which lets Mario throw fireballs), and the Invincibility Star. Unlike the original, there is no two-player mode, but at the title screen the player chooses between the twin plumber characters. Their abilities are differentiated for the first time: Luigi, designed for skilled players, has less ground friction and higher jump height, while Mario is faster.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: The game continues the difficulty progression from the end of its predecessor. "The Lost Levels" introduces irritants including poison mushrooms, level warps that set the player farther back in the game, and wind gusts that redirect the player's course mid-air. The poison mushroom, in particular, works as an anti-mushroom, shrinking or killing the player-character. Some of the game's levels require "split-second" precision and others require the player to jump on invisible blocks. There were also some graphical changes from its predecessor, though their soundtracks are identical. After each boss fight, Toad tells Mario that "our princess is in another castle". The main game has 32 levels across eight worlds and five bonus worlds. A hidden World 9 is accessible if the player does not use a warp zone. Bonus worlds A through D are accessible when the player plays through the game eight times, for a total of 52 levels.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: The original "Super Mario Bros." was released in North America in October 1985. When developing a version of the game for Nintendo's coin-operated arcade machine, the VS. System, the team experimented with new, challenging level designs. They enjoyed these new levels, and thought that "Super Mario" devotees would too. Shigeru Miyamoto, who created the "Mario" franchise and directed "Super Mario Bros.", no longer had time to design games by himself, given his responsibilities leading Nintendo's R&D4 division and their work on "The Legend of Zelda". The "Super Mario" sequel was delegated to its predecessor's assistant director, Takashi Tezuka, as his directorial debut. He worked with Miyamoto and the R&D4 team to develop a sequel based on the same underlying technology, including some levels directly from "Vs. Super Mario Bros."


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: "The Lost Levels", originally released in Japan as "Super Mario Bros.2" on June 3, 1986, was similar in style to "Super Mario Bros." but much more difficult in gameplay"nails-from-diamonds hard", as Jon Irwin described it in his book on the sequels. Tezuka felt that Japanese players had mastered the original game, and so needed a more challenging sequel. Recognizing that the game might be too difficult for newcomers, the team labeled the game's packaging: "For Super Players". They also added a trick to earn infinite lives as preparation for the game's difficulty. Commercials for "The Lost Levels" in Japan featured players failing at the game and screaming in frustration at their television. After "Zelda", "The Lost Levels" was the second release for the Famicom Disk System, an add-on external disk drive with more spacious and less expensive disks than the Famicom cartridges.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: When evaluated for release outside of Japan, Nintendo of America believed "The Lost Levels" was too difficult and frustrating for the recovering American market and declined its release. Howard Phillips, who evaluated games for Nintendo of America President Minoru Arakawa, felt that the game was unfairly difficult, even beyond the unofficial moniker of "Nintendo Hard" that the company's other games sometimes garnered. His opinion was that "The Lost Levels" would not sell well in the American market. "Few games were more stymieing", he later recalled of the game. "Not having fun is bad when you're a company selling fun."


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: Nintendo instead released a retrofitted version of "Doki Doki Panic" as the region's "Super Mario Bros. 2" in October 1988. "Doki Doki Panic" had originally been developed by Kensuke Tanabe. Tanabe was instructed to use characters from Yūme Kojo ‘87 and it was released in Japan as a standalone game on July 10, 1987. "Doki Doki Panic"s characters and artwork were modified to match "Super Mario Bros." before being released in America, and the re-skinned release became known as the "big aberration" in the "Super Mario" series. The American "Super Mario Bros.2" was later released in Japan as "Super Mario USA".


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: Nintendo "cleaned up" parts of the Japanese "Super Mario Bros.2" and released it in later "Super Mario" collections as "The Lost Levels". Its North American debut in the 1993 "Super Mario All-Stars" collection for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System featured updated graphics (including increased visibility for the poison mushroom) and more frequent checkpoints to save player progress. According to "All-Stars" developers, the compilation was created because Miyamoto felt "The Lost Levels" had not reached a wide audience and wanted more players to experience it. "All-Stars" was rereleased as a Limited Edition for the Nintendo Wii console in remembrance of "Super Mario Bros." 25th anniversary in 2010. "The Lost Levels" was edited to fit the handheld Game Boy Color screen as an unlockable bonus in the 1999 "Super Mario Bros. Deluxe": the visible screen is cropped and some features are omitted, such as the wind and five bonus worlds. "The Lost Levels" was rereleased in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance on the third volume of Nintendo's Japan-only Famicom Mini compilation cartridges.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: Nintendo's Virtual Console digital platform introduced North America to the unedited 1986 Japanese release. "The Lost Levels" was released for multiple Nintendo platforms: the Wii's Virtual Console in 2007 (partially in support of Nintendo's Hanabi Festival), the 3DS's in 2012, the Wii U's in 2013, and the Switch's NES catalog in 2019. Nintendo's 2014 classic game compilations "NES Remix 2" (WiiU) and "Ultimate NES Remix" (3DS) included selections from "The Lost Levels". For the series' 35th anniversary, in late 2020, Nintendo included "The Lost Levels" in .


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: At the time of its release, "The Lost Levels" topped "Famicom Tsūshin" charts. The game was the most popular game on the Disk System, for which it sold about 2.5million copies. Retrospective critics viewed "The Lost Levels" as an expansion of the original, akin to extra challenge levels tacked on its end. Despite their similarities, the sequel is distinguished by its notorious difficulty. "1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die" summarized the game as both "familiar and mysterious" and "simply rather unfair". "The Lost Levels" replaced the original's accessible level designs with "insanely tough obstacle courses" as if designed to intentionally frustrate and punish players beginning with its first poison mushroom.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: Retrospective reviewers recommended the game for those who mastered the original, or those who would appreciate a painful challenge. Casual "Mario" fans, "GameZone" wrote, would not find much to enjoy. "Nintendo Life" reviewer felt that while the original was designed for recklessness, its sequel taught patience, and despite its difficulty, remained both "fiendishly clever" and fun. On the other hand, "GamesRadar" felt that the game was an unoriginal, boring retread, and apart from its "pointlessly cruel" difficulty, not worthy of the player's time. "GamesRadar" and "IGN" agreed with Nintendo of America's choice against releasing the harder game in the 1980s, though "Eurogamer" thought that "The Lost Levels" was "technically a much better game" than the "Doki Doki Panic"-based "Super Mario Bros.2" the American market received instead.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: "The Lost Levels" is remembered among the most difficult games by Nintendo and in the video game medium. Three decades after the game's release, "Kotaku" wrote that the demanding player precision required in "The Lost Levels" made fast playthroughs (speedruns) "remarkably fun" to spectate. "NES Remix 2" (2014), a compilation for the WiiU, similarly segmented "The Lost Levels" into speedrun challenges, which made the challenging gameplay more palatable. Many years after the release of "The Lost Levels", fans of the series would modify "Mario" games to challenge each other with nearly impossible levels. The challenges of "The Lost Levels" presaged this Kaizo community, and according to "IGN", "The Lost Levels" shares more in common with this subculture than with the Mario series itself. Indeed, the sequel is remembered as a black sheep in the franchise and a reminder of imbalanced gameplay in Nintendo's history.


title: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

text: Luigi received his first distinctive character traits in "The Lost Levels": less ground friction, and the ability to jump farther. "IGN" considered this change to be the game's most significant, though the controls remained "cramped" and "crippled" with either character. The game's poison mushroom item, with its character-impairing effects, became a staple of the "Mario" franchise. Some of the "Lost Levels" appeared in a 1986 promotional release of "Super Mario Bros.", in which Nintendo modified in-game assets to fit themes from the Japanese radio show "All Night Nippon". Journalists have ranked "The Lost Levels" among the least important in the "Mario" series and of Nintendo's top games.


title: Walls and Bridges

text: Walls and Bridges is the fifth studio album by English musician John Lennon. It was issued by Apple Records on 26 September 1974 in the United States and on 4 October in the United Kingdom. Written, recorded and released during his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono, the album captured Lennon in the midst of his "Lost Weekend". "Walls and Bridges" was an American number-one album on both the "Billboard" and "Record World" charts and included two hit singles, "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" and "#9 Dream". The first of these was Lennon's first number-one hit in the United States as a solo artist, and his only solo chart-topping single in either the US or Britain during his lifetime.


title: Walls and Bridges

text: In June 1973, as Lennon was about to record "Mind Games", Ono suggested that she and Lennon should separate. Lennon soon moved to California with his and Ono's personal assistant May Pang with Ono's encouragement and they embarked on an 18-month relationship he would later refer to as his "Lost Weekend". While he and Pang were living in Los Angeles, Lennon took the opportunity to get reacquainted with his son Julian, whom he had not seen in four years.


title: Walls and Bridges

text: Lennon had planned to record an album of rock 'n' roll oldies with producer Phil Spector, but these sessions became legendary not for the music produced but for alcohol-fuelled antics. Lennon and Pang returned to New York and Spector disappeared with these session tapes. Around this time, Lennon had written several new songs during a stay at The Pierre and started recording a few home demos.


title: Walls and Bridges

text: Lennon began rehearsing his new material with studio musicians at Record Plant East in New York City in July 1974 which included Jim Keltner on drums, Klaus Voormann on bass guitar, Jesse Ed Davis on guitar and Arthur Jenkins on percussion. The core players were billed on the album as the Plastic Ono Nuclear Band, a variation on Plastic Ono Band, the conceptual group to which many of Lennon's solo efforts were credited.


title: Walls and Bridges

text: The musicians worked out their own arrangements in a short time, and the recording advanced quickly. Ron Aprea, the saxophonist from the Little Big Horns, said that "Since he had no formal training in arranging, he would sit in the control room and let us make up our own parts. If he liked what we played, he would let us know ... If we thought we could get it better, he would say 'go for it'." Aprea also said that the brass section was recorded over a two-week period. Lennon later said that it had been "an extraordinary year for me personally. And I'm almost amazed that I could get anything out. But I enjoyed doing "Walls and Bridges" and it wasn't hard when I had the whole thing to go into the studio and do it. I'm surprised it wasn't just all "bluuuuuuggggghhhhh"." Rehearsals were released on the posthumous albums "Menlove Ave." and "John Lennon Anthology".


title: Walls and Bridges

text: Engineer Jimmy Iovine said that the sessions were ""the" most professional I have still been on ... John knew what he wanted, he knew how to get what he was going for, he was going after a noise and he knew how to get it ... His solo thing had an incredible sound to it. And he really had his own sound." Despite Record Plant being one of the most state-of-the-art recording studios in New York at that point, Lennon's vocal overdubs were done with an old stage microphone, which had been left in a bass drum for years. Iovine said that "(it) was an old beat up one ... so it was dull in a way, but John's voice was so bright, that it sounded incredible on it. It turned out to be great vocal sound, like on '#9 Dream'."


title: Walls and Bridges

text: "Walls and Bridges" has a variety of musical stylings and many of the lyrics make it clear that Lennon both enjoyed his new-found freedom and also missed Ono. The album title refers to the barriers that Lennon had constructed between himself and others and his hope that those barriers could be surmounted. Lennon said, "Walls keep you in either protectively or otherwise, and bridges get you somewhere else."


title: Walls and Bridges

text: "Going Down on Love", the album's opening track, incorporates a sexual pun and the lyrics reflect Lennon's feelings about his separation from Ono. The second track, "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" was issued as the album's first single. The inspiration for the lyrics came from late-night television. In December 2005, May Pang told "Radio Times": "At night he loved to channel-surf, and would pick up phrases from all the shows. One time, he was watching Reverend Ike, a famous black evangelist, who was saying, "Let me tell you guys, it doesn't matter, it's whatever gets you through the night." John loved it and said, "I've got to write it down or I'll forget it." He always kept a pad and pen by the bed. That was the beginning of 'Whatever Gets You Thru the Night'." The music was inspired by the number one single at the time, "Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae. Although the released track bears little resemblance, the inspiration is more apparent on the alternative version released on "John Lennon Anthology". The third track is the Lennon/Harry Nilsson composition "Old Dirt Road" which features Nilsson on harmony vocal.


title: Walls and Bridges

text: The next two tracks, "What You Got" and "Bless You", are again songs addressing his feelings about his separation from Ono. Lennon later called the jazzy "Bless You" the "best piece of work on the album ... that seems to be the best track, to me." Side one closes with "Scared," a haunting track which explores Lennon's fear of ageing, loneliness and the emptiness of success.


title: Walls and Bridges

text: Side two leads off with the album's second single, "#9 Dream", which features May Pang on background vocals. According to Pang, two working titles for the song were "So Long Ago" and "Walls & Bridges". The song was notable as a favourite of Lennon's, despite his later claim that the song was a "throwaway". Pang recalled, "This was one of John's favorite songs, because it literally came to him in a dream. He woke up and wrote down those words along with the melody. He had no idea what [Ah, Bowakawa pousse] meant, but he thought it sounded beautiful." The next track is a song Lennon wrote for Pang, "Surprise Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)" which features Elton John on harmony vocal. "Steel and Glass" includes a sinister riff reminiscent of "How Do You Sleep?", Lennon's audio argument with Paul McCartney from the "Imagine" album, although the digs this time were thought to be directed at the former Beatles manager Allen Klein. "Beef Jerky", a rare Lennon instrumental, is a funky, R&B-inspired track.


title: Walls and Bridges

text: The penultimate track, "Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)", was written in 1973 when he and Pang first arrived in Los Angeles. He envisioned Frank Sinatra recording it, saying, "I don't know why. It's kind of a Sinatraesque song, really. He would do a perfect job with it. Are you listening Frank? You need one song that isn't a piece of nothing. Here's one for you, the horn arrangement and everything's made for you. But don't ask me to produce it!"


title: Walls and Bridges

text: The final track is a cover version of Lee Dorsey's "Ya Ya", with Lennon (billed as "Dad") on piano and vocals and son Julian on drums. Lennon surprised Julian with its inclusion on the album, prompting the young Lennon to remark, "If I'd known it was going on the album, I would have played better!"


title: Walls and Bridges

text: When discussing the recording of the album, in an interview the following year with Pete Hamill in "Rolling Stone", Lennon recalled, "Elton sort of popped in on the sessions for "Walls and Bridges" and sort of zapped in and played the piano and ended up singing 'Whatever Gets You Thru the Night' with me. Which was a great shot in the arm. I'd done three quarters of it, 'Now what do we do?' Should we put a camel on it or a xylophone? That sort of thing. And he came in and said, 'Hey, I'll play some piano!'"


title: Walls and Bridges

text: Originally, Lennon planned to use some of his childhood drawings for the cover of an oldies album he had begun in 1973, but when he put that on hold to record "Walls and Bridges", he decided to use the artwork already in production. The album's elaborate outer jacket featured some of his drawings, including one portraying a game of football, specifically the goal scored by George Robledo in the 1952 FA Cup Final. That drawing also featured Newcastle United's number 9 Jackie Milburn; Lennon lived as a child at 9 Newcastle Road and had a lifelong fascination with the number. There is also a series of photos of Lennon's face with different expressions. The front cover contained two flaps which, when folded, created several interchangeable "Lennon faces", some of them silly.


title: Walls and Bridges

text: The album's art direction was credited to Capitol's in-house designer, Roy Kohara. The booklet inside the LP included a front photo of Lennon with no glasses and a back photo of Lennon with five pairs of glasses piled on top of one another, both by the American photographer Bob Gruen. The inner sleeve contained another portrait as well as a horizontal melange of the other photos.