POOL STANDINGS: ROUND TWO

Honest, I'm not late with this. I'm being thorough. We're through Round One of the Playoffs and I wanted to make sure all eight remaining teams had time to play their first game of Round Two so the standings would reflect the full complement of possible pool picks -- especially all you guys who loaded up on New York and Dallas.

Who was that again -- uh -- nobody?

I also had to make sure there wasn't another victory riot in Montreal that might threaten their next outcome. I'm sure Dix was broken hearted after Game Seven there, but luckily for humanity, the Bruins reverted to form in time.


However, I understand shaken Montrealers have been moving to Toronto, where the chances of any victory of any kind are slim.

And thanks to Brian Burke for turning down the Leaf management job. It's saved me six months of listening to Vito from Woodbridge talking about the Leafs going all the way next year.

But back to the important stuff...

This week's Leader, John Callaghan, and about the top half of the pool survived Round One pretty much unscathed. The rest of us are hurting from believing in too many Ducks, Devils and future Hall of Famers who'd been on season ending streaks.

But the Hockey Gods are fickle and there are many twists and turns waiting in the weeks to come. So nobody get too cocky just yet. Although you can be confident in the fact that I'll be anchoring the bottom slot the rest of the way.

The standings as of this morning:

1 John Callaghan 96
2 Brian Stockton 94
3 Jeff Martel 93
4 Juniper 92
5 Scotty William 89
5 Laurie Nyveen 89
7 Will Pascoe 88
8 Michael Foster 85
9 Denis McGrath 80
10 Peter Allen Rowley 78
11 Mark Askwith 77
12 Larry Raskin 76
13 Will Dixon 75
14 Mark Farrell 70
15 Wil Zmak 61
16 Robert de Lint 52
17 Jim Henshaw 47