Round 1 Analysis
A very close pool has shaped up for the 5th annual! Tim Crockford has the lead but only by two points... and he is chased by several pool veterans with championships under their belts. #2 Andrew Ryan, #4 Peter Sadlier-Brown, #5 George Smith, #8 Brendan Browne, and #9 Mohan Krishnamoorthy have all won either the hockey, olympic hockey, or basketball pools over the past five seasons.

Pool focuses on the West
With most of the East favourites knocked out, the pool will focus on what happens in the West. Detroit and Colorado have most of the remaining picks and it is the players on these teams that will make the difference amongst themselves. The only influence from the East will come if Toronto goes through to the final.

In: Team (Picks) Detroit (90) Colorado (78) Toronto (58) San Jose (11) St. Louis (3) Ottawa (1)

Out: Team (Picks) New Jersey (39) Boston (31) Philadelphia (23) Vancouver (12) Los Angeles (5)

A tale of opposites
In great shape after the first round is George Smith. The recent Shoot for Gold olympic pool champion, George is the only person not to have lost any picks in round 1. He's been on a steady climb up the standings and is projected to lead the pool after Round 2.

Meanwhile, Aron Slipacoff has the dubious distinction of being the first person ever to lose all his picks in the first round. It seems he picked underdogs -- just not the right ones. Fortunately he had already surpassed Shawn Smith's 38-point all-time pool low set in 2000. For now, the Slipacoff banner will be carried by young Max.

Biggest Bust
Every year we pick a player who tanked in the playoffs after being picked by numerous people. In 1998, it was Bobby Holik (after the Devils were eliminated by Ottawa), 0 points for 4 picks. 1999's bust was Alexei Yashin, with 0 points for 11 picks. In 2000, it was Sergei Gonchar, 1 point for 5 picks, while last year's bust was Steve Yzerman, 0 points for 10 picks.

This year's bust is: the entire Philadelphia Flyers team! They registered a whopping 2 points among 6 players and 23 pool picks, including 0-for-7 Jeremy Roenick, 0-for-5 John LeClair, and 2-for-7 Adam Oates. "Bye Billy Barber..."

The biggest active bust is Rob Blake, with 2 points so far for 28 poolies. He'd better step it up!

Best Darkhorse Pick
This year's best darkhorse picks are Patrick Marleau and Daniel Alfredsson. Marleau was picked only by Mouli Ramani -- who mentioned him as his ace-in-the-hole before the pool began. Marleau's 6 points leads San Jose. Alfredsson also has 6 points -- for only Steve Tivey -- and given the sparcity of picks left in the East, this pick could prove more valuable moving forward.

What about these guys???
One of the biggest stories this year is all the great picks nobody took! A top-rank team could have been put together from the following roster:
Montreal: Zednik (8 pts.), Gilmour (7), Koivu (7); Ottawa: Lalime (19), Hossa (6); St. Louis: Johnson (19), Demitra (7); Detroit: Chelios (6); Toronto: McCauley (6); Los Angeles: Palffy (9).

Projected Round 2 Standings:

Name: George Smith Tim Crockford Steve Tivey Peter Sadlier-Brown Brendan Browne Ian Winsor Crawford Dedman Barb Ferrier Richard Gretzinger Tony Ruffolo Andrew Ryan Vince Galante Wally Mikulski B.L.T. Mohan Krishnamoorthy Mike Howard David Reilly Mitch Wexler Christian Pitcher Paul Hanna Karen Patterson Ron Wener Joel Cornberg Sam Fielding Keith Riddell Vince Brescia Altaf Champsi Danthrax Kevin Floether Snow Princess Dane Clatney John Menary Russell Reed Rohit Chandra Max Slipacoff Mouli Ramani Julian Vardy Tim Smith Aron Slipacoff

R2 Projection: 104 102 96 94 92 92 89 89 88 88 87 86 86 85 85 84 84 84 83 82 81 79 77 77 77 76 75 74 73 73 72 72 71 70 66 64 58 56 40

R1 Pts: 52 57 52 53 49 54 48 51 47 47 55 43 43 48 48 43 47 47 47 43 44 43 43 45 45 39 44 38 45 45 42 43 42 38 40 39 40 42 40

R1 Rank: 5 1 6 4 8 3 9 7 12 12 2 23 23 9 9 27 14 14 14 23 21 26 29 17 17 36 22 38 19 19 30 27 31 39 33 37 34 32 35