Round 2 Analysis
Round two's story was similar to round one, with the favourites winning and no major upsets throwing a wrench in the pool. With nearly 60 per cent of the pool's picks still active into round three, there is a lot of pool yet to be played out.

Ray Emery leads all players with 20 pool points after round 2.

Standings in flux
The exciting part of round two was the amount of change in the standings - from the first game to the last. We saw major rises by some poolies - Scott Hamilton rose from 70th into the top ten, among other examples - and major falls by others. This fluctuation, along with the amount of picks still remaining, bodes well for an exciting round three. Don't count yourself out just yet!

Expect new contenders to emerge
One near-constant since the middle of round one has been the pool's leader, Keith Chappell. With the exception of only a couple days, when Ron Wener grabbed the perch, Keith has held a slim lead - and he expanded the lead in the final days of the round. But with three players eliminated and others poolies on the rise, Keith's days on top might be numbered. Other top-five regulars including Ron, Scott Strachan, Alan Eng and Marilyn Beaulieu are likely to fall out of the running.

Round three should see some new blood at the top - and the field is wide open. Gerald Wexler is in the strongest position with eight players remaining and only six points back. Others in the vicinity with eight players include the trio of Carolinans in the UNC division (Terry Hoey, Mike Newbauer, and Stuart Klein), along with Candace Barry and Scott Hamilton. A little further behind but still with a full nine-player entry are Patrick Gill and Sophie Wexler.

The round 3 projections are at the bottom of the page.

Good picking
Most years we are talking about the "woulda, shoulda" players who were not picked by anyone, but would have made an impact. This year, other than Marty Turco's three shutouts in his round one defeat, not a single player among the top forwards or defensemen was ignored by poolies. The closest candidate would be Anaheim's Sami Pahlsson, with seven points. Some surprises might develop by the time the Cup is awarded, but so far we're seeing one of the most accurately picked pools on record. (Yes, it does help that there are 132 entries.) The top dark horse pick after round two is Michael Nylander, picked twice and collecting 13 points.

Mitch's predictions
After going 3-1 in round two (San Jose being my only mistake) and 10-2 overall I'm now very confident I'll nail it the rest of the way. Of course the TSN experts have similarly impressive results so maybe it's simply because the picks have been easy this year. Anyways, I'm calling Ottawa and Anaheim to meet in the final.

Who's Hot and Who's Not:

Hot	Pos. Gain (R1, R2)		Hot	Rd2 Pts.
Jason Roy	76 (100,24)		Gerald Wexler	54
Patrick Provost	70 (94,24)		Scott Strachan	52
Max-Zeb Jackaman-Slipacoff	68 (119,51)		Scott Hamilton	49
Patrick Gill	65 (80,15)		Candace Barry	48
Andrew Hamilton	62 (109,47)		Patrick Gill	48
Not	Pos. Loss (R1, R2)		Not	Rd2 Pts.
Grace Yu	92 (11,103)		Corgan Rikkonen	0
Rica French	78 (18,96)		Vince Tsang	0
Steve Kennedy	73 (18,91)		Steve Sealy	1
Jason Collette	70 (24,94)		Einar Gainforth Beech	7
Kevin Clarke	66 (37,103)		Katie Douglas	7

Team and Player Stats:

Teams
IN	Players picked	Cups	OUT (R2)	Players picked	Cups
Buffalo	258	54	San Jose	98	7
Anaheim	212	14	Vancouver	74	10
Detroit	134	11	New Jersey	62	3
Ottawa	96	12	NY Rangers	19	0

Top Players
Forwards	Team	Pts	Picks	Alive		Defense	Team	Pts	Picks	Alive
Scott Gomez	NJD	14	5			Chris Pronger	ANA	11	51	Y
Dany Heatley	OTT	14	46	Y		Nicklas Lidstrom	DET	11	51	Y
Michael Nylander	NYR	13	2			Brian Rafalski	NJD	8	8
Jason Spezza	OTT	12	26	Y		Michal Rozsival	NYR	7	1
Jaromir Jagr	NYR	11	12			Mattias Ohlund	VAN	7	1
Daniel Alfredsson	OTT	11	96	Y		Brian Campbell	BUF	7	9	Y
Pavel Datsyuk	DET	11	37	Y		Goalies	Team	Pts	Picks	Alive
Joe Thornton	SAN	11	49			Ray Emery	OTT	20	4	Y
Daniel Briere	BUF	11	96	Y		Marty Turco	DAL	18	0
						Dominik Hasek	DET	13	17	Y

Projected Round 3 Standings

Here are the projected scores and rankings for after round 3. The projection assumes (wrongly, of course) that the players you have alive will produce in round 3 at the same average rate as in rounds 1 and 2, so Dominik Hasek would get half a shutout and four wins.

(R1)	(R2)	Proj. Rank	Name	Score	Alive	Cup	Rd3 Projection
1	1	1	Keith Chappell	101	6	OTT	140
49	3	2	Gerald Wexler	95	8	DET	138
24	2	3	Scott Strachan	96	6	OTT	133
29	7	4	Terry Hoey	90	8	BUF	130
80	15	5	Patrick Gill	86	9	OTT	129
60	15	5	Sophie Wexler	86	9	DET	129
49	8	7	Candace Barry	89	8	DET	128
7	3	7	Becke Gainforth	95	6	OTT	128
70	9	9	Scott Hamilton	88	8	BUF	126
49	12	10	Stuart Klein	87	8	ANA	125
18	12	10	Mike Newbauer	87	8	OTT	125
24	6	10	Alan Eng	91	6	OTT	125
94	24	13	Patrick Provost	83	9	BUF	124
37	15	13	Mike Patterson	86	8	BUF	124
80	19	15	Colin Kennedy	85	8	ANA	122
60	24	15	Gary Arsenault	83	8	DET	122
4	5	15	Marilyn Beaulieu	93	6	NJD	122
94	33	18	Kyle Hogg	80	9	ANA	120
11	12	18	Karen Savoie	87	6	PIT	120
2	9	20	Ron Wener	88	6	BUF	118
24	9	20	David Loop	88	6	ANA	118
15	19	20	Steve Tivey	85	6	BUF	118
100	42	23	George Smith	77	9	ANA	116
100	24	23	Jason Roy	83	7	OTT	116
60	15	25	Russell Reed	86	6	BUF	115
80	22	25	Sandy Morrison	84	6	OTT	115
29	28	27	Mohan Krishnamoorthy	82	7	BUF	114
18	30	27	Brendan Browne	81	7	BUF	114
7	19	29	Norma Wexler	85	6	NJD	113
60	33	29	Alvin Gainforth	80	6	DET	113
119	51	31	Max-Zeb Jackaman-Slipacoff	75	9	BUF	112
37	28	31	Al Champsi	82	7	BUF	112
80	33	31	Jean-Pierre Reilly	80	7	BUF	112
109	52	34	George Crothers	74	9	BUF	111
49	42	35	Steven Hawley	77	8	BUF	110
18	30	35	Mary Sue Strickland	81	7	BUF	110
49	39	35	Steve McInnes	79	7	BUF	110
49	39	35	Shane Kozlowich	79	7	BUF	110
49	42	35	Andy Hotson	77	7	BUF	110
4	22	35	Mike van Steendelaar	84	5	BUF	110
18	24	35	Jamie-Lynn Patterson	83	5	BUF	110
109	47	42	Andrew Hamilton	76	7	OTT	109
6	39	43	Tony Ruffolo	79	6	BUF	108
24	47	43	Tracy Fellingham	76	6	PIT	108
15	33	45	Lori-Ann Robinson	80	6	ANA	106
60	59	46	Brad MacDonald	73	7	BUF	105
11	30	46	Judah Gould	81	5	BUF	105
29	52	48	Joel Elash	74	7	BUF	104
109	59	48	Dave Coady	73	7	BUF	104
80	52	48	Sam Fielding	74	6	OTT	104
29	33	48	Aaron Pretto	80	5	SAN	104
49	42	52	Hank Shannon	77	5	VAN	103
100	59	53	Alison Stewart	73	6	OTT	102
114	69	53	Mitch Wexler	70	6	OTT	102
29	33	53	Richard Rikkonen	80	5	BUF	102
49	47	56	Sean Smith	76	6	BUF	100
60	52	56	Blair Miller	74	6	SAN	100
100	69	56	Jerry Rynda	70	6	BUF	100
80	74	59	Mike De Petrillo	68	8	ANA	98
70	73	59	Jason Hall	69	7	BUF	98
80	59	59	Peter Sadlier-Brown	73	6	SAN	98
29	52	59	Bo Chen	74	5	DET	98
70	52	63	Chris Smith	74	6	BUF	97
29	59	63	Jeff Hammond	73	5	DET	97
80	59	65	Davie Lantz	73	6	ANA	96
15	42	65	Tim Smith	77	5	BUF	96
49	59	65	Richard Gretzinger	73	5	BUF	96
80	80	68	Renee Loubert	67	7	BUF	95
70	66	68	Tony Vanderdrift	71	6	SAN	95
100	69	68	Georgina Hubbard	70	6	DET	95
37	74	68	Camillo Cipriano	68	6	BUF	95
127	91	72	Joel Pollock	63	8	ANA	94
70	74	72	Dan Stanhope	68	6	BUF	94
7	52	72	Mark Fahey	74	4	DET	94
60	83	75	Georgia Strachan	66	7	BUF	93
80	80	76	Cassandra Jackaman	67	6	BUF	92
49	84	76	Guy Maratta	65	6	DET	92
7	69	76	Lee Beech	70	5	BUF	92
37	74	79	Norrin Ripsman	68	6	ANA	90
100	84	79	Ian Winsor	65	6	BUF	90
70	88	79	Andrew Tompkins	64	6	DET	90
37	88	79	Art French	64	6	BUF	90
2	47	79	Noah Pollock	76	3	BUF	90
29	74	84	Jonas Struthers	68	5	BUF	88
114	103	85	Deric Chow	59	6	BUF	83
94	94	85	Barrett Boitson	62	5	BUF	83
70	91	87	Jen Gilliland	63	5	BUF	82
11	66	87	Dennis Clayton	71	3	ANA	82
37	80	89	Louie Marrone	67	3	SAN	80
80	84	89	Ted Kennedy	65	3	VAN	80
37	84	91	Andrew Ryan	65	3	NAS	79
125	112	92	Derek McBean	55	6	BUF	78
18	96	92	Rica French	61	4	PIT	78
60	97	92	Vince Galante	60	4	BUF	78
80	88	92	Martha Ricketts	64	3	BUF	78
37	66	92	Alexander Blasioli	71	2	SAN	78
100	108	97	Julian Vardy	57	4	PIT	76
37	74	97	Jordana Wexler	68	3	SAN	76
37	97	97	Gilles Duguay	60	3	VAN	76
129	114	100	Michel Melanson	53	6	BUF	74
119	114	100	Alex Di Noia	53	5	PIT	74
80	97	100	Alex Delo	60	4	BUF	74
60	110	100	Emma Fielding	56	4	NAS	74
18	91	100	Steve Kennedy	63	3	VAN	74
70	103	100	Duncan Campbell	59	3	VAN	74
24	94	106	Jason Collette	62	3	PIT	73
37	97	106	Cavin Bennett	60	3	MIN	73
109	108	108	Puya Vakili-Zad	57	4	ANA	72
100	97	108	Karen Patterson	60	2	VAN	72
70	97	110	Jacques Lirette	60	3	PIT	71
131	121	111	Joy Smith	47	9	ANA	70
37	103	111	Kevin Clarke	59	3	BUF	70
94	110	113	Ashleigh Harrington	56	3	VAN	67
94	107	114	Pierre Gainforth Beech	58	3	PIT	66
60	113	114	Aron Slipacoff	54	3	VAN	66
128	114	114	Brad Hotson	53	3	BUF	66
70	118	114	Laura Maratta	52	3	VAN	66
109	118	118	Richard Ciano	52	3	PIT	63
94	114	119	Brenden Kennedy	53	2	PIT	61
114	121	120	Sharon Boitson	47	3	CGY	60
119	123	121	David Lester	46	3	BUF	59
11	103	121	Grace Yu	59	0	NJD	59
114	125	123	Ella Joan	45	3	BUF	56
125	125	123	Mike Walsh	45	3	ATL	56
100	123	125	Della Santin	46	2	VAN	53
114	127	126	Katie Douglas	41	3	CGY	50
131	128	126	Sean Sargent	39	3	ANA	50
119	120	128	Vicki Lewis	48	0	CGY	48
130	130	129	Einar Gainforth Beech	33	3	NAS	42
80	128	130	Steve Sealy	39	0	NAS	39
119	130	131	Vince Tsang	33	0	MIN	33
119	130	131	Corgan Rikkonen	33	0	PIT	33