The Sound Tigers can’t know their opponent Saturday. It’s a Heisenberg Uncertainty, position/momentum kind of thing: Being locked in in the Atlantic Division means it could still flip with Utica in the North, and similarly, clinching “third” in the North means it’s still alive to move up in the Atlantic.
(Wait, is the Futurama “No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it” clip really not on YouTube? (Or at least, not en Inglés?) Yeesh.)
The momentum side: A Bridgeport win of any kind and a Utica loss of any kind will secure a better finish than the Comets. So will a Bridgeport overtime loss coupled with a Utica regulation loss. (The magic number is currently four, but these three-point scenarios would clinch both a tie and the tiebreaker.) But, position: The only way the Sound Tigers can be locked into fifth tonight is with a regulation loss of their own (coupled with a Portland win), which would leave open the Utica question. Anything else, and it could still catch at least the Pirates and perhaps the Bruins.
Higher up, a regulation win for Hershey, still, clinches the division. Regulation wins for both Hershey and Wilkes-Barre will lock them into the top two spots, in that order. A Providence win leaves at least second open. A Hershey loss leaves everything open. Bridgeport and Portland can’t catch the Penguins, but they can catch Providence if they win and the Bruins lose in regulation tonight. Among other things. We’ll sort it all out in the liveblog toward the end of the night.