Adele Cancels Shows Due to Illness (Including Vancouver)

UPDATE: Adele has cancelled the rest of her North American tour.

Adele is ill. Not just in the fresh/wicked/dope sense of the word: she’s come down with laryngitis and her famous pipes are barely able to croak out a voicemail to her mum, let alone hits like “Chasing Pavements” or “Someone Like You.”

The curvaceous chanteuse, whose albums include the imaginatively titled 19 and 21, gained massive fame in her native UK for her smoky, powerful voice and retro-modern sound. While she’s often written up as a less trainwreck-y Amy Winehouse or a “realer” Duffy, Adele’s rapidly growing fanbase has found something in her music that neither singer can match. That, along with the hype, has led to a string of sold-out concert dates on Adele’s North American 2011 tour and, when Adele cancelled all her shows until June 4th’s at the Warfield in San Francisco, a bunch of disappointed fans.

Official word so far is that shows will be rescheduled and tickets honored at the new ones. Cancelled shows so far are May 31st in Vancouver at the Orpheum (moved from the Commodore due to demand), June 1 in Seattle at the Paramount, and June 3 in Portland at the Crystal Ballroom.

For more info, visit Adele’s official site at Adele.tv or visit the Adele tickets page at ShowTimeTickets.com.

EA Sports Hockey Simulator Says Canucks Win Stanley Cup

EA Sports, famous for their NHL Hockey series of games, knows a lot about hockey. They harvest every last micrometer of data they can and cram it into their games until you almost expect the virtual Sedin brothers to become sentient and try to break out of your Xbox. Last year, their pick for the Stanley Cup (Chicago) was spot-on. This year, they said the Canucks would win the series. Well, technically not this year–back in October, actually, before playoffs started and when hope of playoffs success was dimmest.
Not only did EA Sports predict the Canucks would win the Cup, they also predicted that Vancouver would beat the Sharks 4-2 in the Western Conference playoffs, and that Boston would beat Tampa Bay to become Eastern Conference champs (the sim isn’t perfect, though: the Bruins won 4-3, not 4-2 as was predicted).
Here’s footage of the sim predicting Vancouver’s earlier win against the Sharks. Check out how eerily close they got to the actual series.

 
 

EA Sports Releases Details on NHL 12 for 360, PS3

According to EA Sports, it’s the world’s “Premier Hockey Video Game.” If you ask gamers, though, it’s more like the only one—main competitor 2K Sports only released the current version of their game, the Ryan Kesler-bedecked NHL 2K11 for iPhone and Wii. By steering clear of the PS3 and Xbox 360, they hope to gain enough time to make NHL 2K12 a clear improvement on EA’s NHL 12, but only time will tell.

Meanwhile, NHL 12‘s September release date creeps nearer, and EA has begun to release a trickle of information. Primary improvements to the game center around making it even more indistinguishable from watching a live game on TV: in addition to ever-more-complex player models and realistic crowds, the physics engine has been beefed up with what EA calls their “Full Contact Physics Engine.” No more awkward action figures gliding eerily across the ice as in the PS2 days; these players shift their weight, collide with each other, and move differently based on their size. The game’s Be a Pro mode has also been improved.
New to the game are highly improved dynamic goalies: players can “knock the net off and make contact with goalies, knocking them down or out of position, as they crash the crease,” and most importantly, EA promises that gamers will now be able to drop their goalie’s gloves and take a swing at players they don’t much care for.
Beyond EA’s press release and screenshots, little information is available about the game. It remains to be seen whether updated rosters, a better physics engine, and the improved Be a Pro mode are worth $70, though.
NHL 12 comes out in September for all major gaming consoles, and will most likely run hockey fans $59.99 in the US and $69.99 in Canada.

Tampa Bay-Boston Game 6 Recap

The Tampa Bay Lightning managed to keep hold of their shot for the Stanley Cup when they tied the Eastern Conference last night 3-3. They managed to defeat the Boston Bruins 5-4 at home in St Pete Times Forum in Tampa, sending the teams back to Boston for Game 7.
First period went off with a bang just 36 seconds in as Teddy Purcell knocked it in with an assist from Vincent Lecavalier. The Bruins bounced back to take the lead, with goals from Milan Lucic and David Krejci.
Tampa Bay fought back in the second period, tying it up then jumping ahead with two goals. The first was with a backhanded goal by Martin St Louis. The second was a nice slap shot by Teddy Purcell.
They managed to continue the goal roll, when Steven Stamkos scored 34 seconds into the third. Boston stepped up as Krejci tipped one in. Less than a minute later St Louis got one with a wrist shot while the goalie was on the other side of the net. Boston tried to stay in it with another goal by Krejci. It was a great hat trick by Krejci, but it wasn’t enough.
Tampa Bay took the game 5-4.
This is the first time a Conference Final has gone to Game 7 since 2007. The first game of the Stanley Cup Final will take place in Vancouver June 1st at 5 pm PDT. The last game for the Eastern Conference Final takes place tomorrow Friday, May 27th at 5 pm PDT in Boston.

Vancouver Canucks take Conference in Game 5 2OT Win

It seems appropriate that on the anniversary of the Vancouver Canucks winning the Western Conference Final that sent them to their last Stanley Cup Final they do a repeat performance. That’s right, after 17 years the Canucks will be in the Final. Not only that but like their 1994 Canucks counterparts, they also won the game in double overtime.
The fans seemed a little out of it last night, not cheering like they typically do. I figure everyone was just holding their collective breath to see if the Canucks would end it here or if the San JoseSharks would survive to go on to Game 6.
The game itself can be highlighted by numerous great saves by Roberto Luongo, who made 54 saves including 20 in overtime. There were far fewer penalties this game that we saw in Game 4.
First period saw Alex Burrows scoring the first goal of the game at 8:02, with a Sedin to Sedin assist. Vancouver took hooking and slashing penalties, putting Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler in the box for two minutes each.
The Sharks tied it up in the second period on a power play, with Dan Boyle getting it in on a wrist shot. Kevin Bieska was in the box at the time for high sticking. The Sharks’ Torrey Mitchell took a penalty for tripping, and three minutes later Raffi Torres got it for too many men on the ice.
Twenty-four seconds into the third period, Devin Setoguchi put the Sharks ahead against the Sedin line. Luongo foibled badly, coming too far out of the net to possibly stop the goal. It seemed like the end for the Canucks, until literally the last few seconds of the game Ryan Kesler managed to score. 13.2 seconds to be exact. Despite a lower body injury that made him leave the game for a while in the second period, the doctors patched him up and he came back.
This lead to two sudden death overtimes. The first was relatively quiet, with more great saves by Luongo. The second had a near miss for Chris Higgins, who had a beautiful breakaway but couldn’t quite get it past Antti Niemi. Then in a move that nobody else saw (literally, Canucks and Sharks alike had lost track of the puck), Bieksa landed a knuckle puck right in the net with 9:42 left in 2OT. “It was probably the ugliest goal of my career, but the biggest.”
Henrik Sedin accepted the Clarence S Campbell Bowl on behalf of the Vancouver Canucks, now the Western Conference Champions.
The Stanley Cup Final games won’t be scheduled until we know who takes the Eastern Conference Final (who will it be… Bruins or Lightning?). But check back here as I’ll keep you updated when tickets go on sale.