Friday, April 3, 2009

HUGE Weekend Upcoming

We all know Hershey's schedule the rest of the way, right? If not you can find it on the sidebar right here on this site.

And we also know that the Bears are leading the East division by 3 points. If you didn't know this you do now. Both Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Bridgeport have 98 points while the Bears have 101 points.

We also now that as of this moment the Binghamton Senators are in 4th but only by 3 points as the Philadelphia Phantoms have managed to close the gap and are trying to extend the life of the Spectrum by a few games.

But do you know what kind of schedules these other teams have? I mean Hershey's schedule is pretty tough right? Each of the final 5 games is against teams either in the playoffs or fighting for a spot. As well as 3 of those games on the road.

So the Penguins and Sound Tigers must have tough roads too, right? Not exactly.

Bridgeport's schedule (4 games remain):

vs Hershey (4/3)
vs Albany (4/5)
vs Springfield (4/10)
vs Lowell (4/11)

Wilkes Barre/Scranton's schedule (5 left):

vs Hershey (4/4)
vs Norfolk (4/8)
vs Albany (4/10)
vs Norfolk (4/11)
@ Hershey (4/12)

Wow....both of the Bears main challengers for the division title get 4 more home games and of the 9 total games left between the teams only the 3 games against Hershey feature playoff teams. Both the Pens and Tigers should be able to win at least 3 games each based on those schedules.

The fortunate part for Hershey is if they win the 3 games remaining against both teams they will win the division. BUT if Hershey loses just 2 of those games (maybe even 1) then the division might be lost.

Translation.....this Friday and Saturday feature the BIGGEST games of the season to this point.


Now onto who is going to finish in 4th in the division. Right now Bingo is in with Philly playing great. So who has the easier schedule? You decide.

Binghamton's schedule (5 left):

@ Rochester (4/3)
vs Albany (4/4)
@ Syracuse (4/8)
vs Norfolk (4/10)
@ Albany (4/11)

Philadelphia's schedule (6 left):

@ Norfolk (4/3)
@ Norfolk (4/4)
vs Norfolk (4/5)
@ Albany (4/8)
vs Hershey (4/10)
@ Hershey (4/11)

To me I think Bingo has the upper hand. They are already 3 points up and they only play 1 playoff team (Syracuse). While the Phantoms only get 1 playoff team (Hershey) they do have to play 6 games in 9 days. That is a tough schedule this late in the season.

And how about the mini-series against Norfolk, IF they sweep the weekend set with the Ads they will be in pretty good shape.


Any way you look at it it looks like this:

If Hershey wins this Friday AND Saturday they will be 5 points up on both the Tigers and Penguins. With that they would only need a win to eliminate the Tigers from the discussion.

But this is all we need to worry ourselves with.....


LET'S GO BEARS!!!!!!

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