Belize City Lion wrote:The Riders are in the best position to catch the Lions now. Thanks to the unbalanced schedule, BC effectively has a 5 point lead on Calgary, making our magic number over the Stamps 2. But the Riders are only 4 points back and would own the tie break if they beat us in the regular season finale. As much as it feels like the Lions are comfortably in the driver's seat heading into the last 4 weeks, there is still a realistic chance that the final game will determine first place.
Yep, whoever wins that game owns the tiebreaker — a win would knot the season series at 2-2 and we'd take it on pt diff which we currently lead 65-55, while a loss would give them a 3-1 edge — although if we win it's unlikely that we would actually need to invoke it.
All things being equal, Ssk has the best chance to catch us, although among Western teams, I'd say Cgy has the easiest remaining schedule. Their remaining opponents all have losing records, aside from us, whom they will host.
10-4 BC: @Ham, vsEdm, @Cgy, vsSsk (total opp record 27-29, 2 .500+ teams)
8-6 Cgy: @Wpg, vsHam, vsBC, @Edm (25-31, 1)
8-6 Ssk: @Edm, vsMtl, vsTor, @BC (31-25, 3)
6-8 Edm: vsSsk, @BC, @Mtl, vsCgy (34-22, 4)
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
). Still, I kind of miss seeing a team that can be counted on to just roll over the opposition....
