Pool Report #2: Giant Killers

And there are two ways to take that post title. depending on which word -- “Giant” or “Killers” you place the emphasis.

If it’s the first word, you share my surprise at how roughshod the Blues have ridden the Blackhawks and the Ducks the Kings as well as how Montreal managed to easily win two away games in Tampa.

If it’s the former, you had to question the sanity of Detroit’s Jamie Smith trying to goad Zedano Charra into a fight.

I once was called in to “assist” a friend who’d made the mistake of getting on the wrong side of a trio of Bikers. Self-preservation kicked in and I asked which of them could kick my ass the quickest in order to minimize the pain. The laughter broke the tension and everybody went home in one piece.

But this weekend’s superb exhibition of how hockey is supposed to be played should have also made it clear to fans in the six un-represented NHL cities that the reason they didn’t make the post season will take significantly more than tweaking.

Can you imagine the Leafs or Canucks even attempting to keep up with let alone outscore ANY of these teams in a 7 game series?

And just listening to the CBC commentators over-hyping every good thing the Habs are doing makes one wonder if some objectivity during the season might have helped some of us wake up far earlier.

Not that objectivity will likely intrude on Rogers trying to get more fans signing on to upgraded streaming and data plans – but it might help teams realize they really do have to try harder.

In the pool, it appears some of those who “tried harder” and didn’t go for the chalk or follow the “smart” money might be very well placed as the games progress.

As we begin Week 2, Jeff Eyamie leads with Larry Raskin and Will Dixon both within a single shutout of overtaking.

But it’s still early days for the rest of us too –- although the Sun could well have set on almost half the first round series by Friday’s Pool update, which would be some kind of record –- and far from what a revenue hungry CBC needs in this its last turn at the Stanley Cup pay window.

Things will only get more interesting on a lot of levels…