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Soundin' Off -- the lifeboat

Thursday, April 05, 2007

"Have fun"

That was part of the admonition from Jack Capuano this morning. Good advice. This is a heck of a race.

In fact, if this thing goes to the wire like this, with the teams tied in points and wins, it'll be unprecedented.

Only twice in the past 35 seasons has a team been eliminated on so much as the wins tiebreaker. The Beast of New Haven finished its final season 33-35-7-5 in 1998-99; Worcester was 34-36-8-2 to eke out fourth place in the New England Division. Adirondack (32-38-10) beat out Springfield (31-37-12) by a win in 1994-95.

(One asterisk on that: In 2003-04, Hershey knew it had to win its final game to leap a point ahead of Norfolk in points; the Admirals would take the tiebreaker. In overtime, the Bears pulled Phil Sauve, but Shane Willis' bank-in attempt sailed out and off the boards and into his own net. Antero Niittymaki got credit for the goal. Hershey would have been tied in points but lost on wins; instead, losing the OTL point left the Bears a point behind.)

In the league's first 35 seasons, it only happened four times: 1970-71 (Springfield 29-35-8, Quebec 25-31-16); 1962-63 (Baltimore 38-28-11, Quebec 35-30-7); 1948-49 (Cleveland 41-21-6, Pittsburgh 39-19-10); 1940-41 (Pittsburgh 21-29-6, Buffalo 19-27-10).

There have been 21 other races in which a team was eliminated by one or two points.

But none has come down to the season series. Could it happen this time? Heck, consider this: Albany beats Binghamton tomorrow, and Bridgeport loses in regulation to Providence tomorrow and beats Albany in regulation Saturday. The teams would be tied in points, wins and season series with four games to play, and Albany would be in fourth on goal differential.

Appears there's no help yet from the injured list, nor from the draft picks.

AHL announced its All-Star teams. No surprises.

Norfolk's first three home playoff games will be Games 3, 4 and 5*, alternating weekdays April 23-27, regardless of whether the Admirals are the higher seed. The Virginian-Pilot notes that Scope is booked for the first week of the playoffs by the Virginia International Tattoo.

(Favorite tattoos: 3) Michael Scofield's escape blueprint on Prison Break; 2) Bart Simpson's "Moth" tattoo from 7G08; 1) Billy Edd Wheeler's Coal Tattoo from the Kingston Trio's Time to Think.)

*-if necessary

2 Comments:

  • Once again Dubie saves the day. Isles stay alive.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:42 PM  

  • Dubie for President!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:03 AM  

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