Closing early

Something that just caught my eye as I sorted for season series... The eighth and final game against Norfolk is Feb. 20; the last Albany game is Feb. 24. That's two out of six division rivalries that will be over and done with seven weeks -- and 22 games -- remaining in the season. Binghamton doesn't end much later, March 12. If Bridgeport needs to make hay against any of those teams, it'd better do it early. (Or it'd better hope it can beat Wilkes-Barre an awful lot in 10 weeks*.)

This will be the earliest a division-rival season series will end, by better than two weeks. In fact, those three series this season will actually end before** the previous record-holder. In 2005-06, Bridgeport played its final Norfolk game on March 11 with a season that ended April 16, comparable to this year's April 13. (The Sound Tigers only had one game with Wilkes-Barre after Feb. 12 that year, but it was April 14.)

*-Opponents after that final Albany game: WBS 5, HFD 3, PHI 3, BIN 2, LOW 2, POR 2, WOR 2, HER 2, MCR 1.
**-"Before," in the Binghamton case, in terms of days-left-in-season, if not by the calendar.