The next play: What’s on deck in Triangle sports, including Bulls, Mudcats, Hurricanes
It’s scary how it can feel like a season flies by quickly. Wasn’t it just yesterday the Carolina Hurricanes were opening the season on a 9-0 run?
This coming week marks the end of the NHL regular season, and the Hurricanes will celebrate the only way they know how: playing multiple games in a row at the end of this condensed schedule.
The Canes will play the second of back-to-back afternoon games to kick off the week Sunday at the New York Islanders. (They played in New Jersey on Saturday.)
Then, perhaps the biggest game remaining on the schedule with respect to the Metro Division standings looms on Tuesday, a rematch with the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
The Canes’ record at MSG is anything but favorable, but they did win the last time out at the venerable venue.
They’ll cap the regular season with a home game Thursday against the Devils, and the Stanley Cup Playoffs will begin the following week.
An intriguing possibility still faces the Canes and Rangers: What happens if, after Thursday, they are tied? The answer is simple at first, but gets a bit more complicated depending on how deeply the tie runs.
▪ First, the league will tabulate regulation wins, meaning any win earned before heading to overtime.
▪ Next, the league adds overtime games back to the total and recalibrates.
▪ If, however, the teams were still tied, the next tiebreaker is overall win total.
▪ Another tie there would trigger the fourth level of statistical comparison, total points earned in head-to-head matchups. With one game remaining between the teams, the Canes have the advantage there, 4-2.
▪ If necessary, a fifth comparison is used: Season-long goal differential.
After all that, if nothing is resolved, there would be a never-before-seen playoff game, winner-take-all, with the home team decided by a coin flip. Only once, in 2000 with Buffalo and Montreal, has that even come close to happening.
Home cooking
The Durham Bulls are back in town this week for their second homestand of the season. The Bulls will welcome the Memphis Redbirds to DBAP for a six-game set, kicking things off at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.
The Redbirds are a middle-of-the-pack team from the International League’s West division, while the Bulls, who were the best team in Minor League Baseball last season, are off to a tough start in the East. The Bulls are hoping a lengthy homestand can cure what ails them,
On the road again
Meanwhile, south of Raleigh, the Carolina Mudcats will hit the road after concluding their homestand Sunday against the Lynchburg Hillcats.
Tuesday, the Mudcats behind a six-game set with Down East Wood Ducks in Kinston. The Wood Ducks are right in the middle of the Carolina League North standings, just a couple of games back of the Mudcats. The evenly matched squads will play through to the beginning of May.
