USCHO.com pre-season poll released

The USCHO.com pre-season poll was released yesterday and has BU ranked #13 nationally at the beginning of the season. Now this poll means nothing besides to give fans an idea of perception around the country. The meaningful rankings in the pairwise don't come out and mean much until the second half of the season in January and February.  There is almost a Madden-level jinx on the #1 overall in the USCHO poll though. #1 this year happens to be BC. Only one team ever has won the national title after being proclaimed #1 before the season begins. Also, 4 of the last 7 have missed the NCAA tournament all together as BC did in 08-09(what a glorious year). USCHO has a more detailed breakdown of the struggles of number 1 teams since the polls began. Now like I do every Monday during the season, I will give my opinion on other Hockey East teams ranked and select other teams throughout the country.




1. Newton University- Considering they have question marks on defense and have a good amount of scoring to replace, it is a high ranking but the national champion is named #1 the following year quite often.
2. Minnesota- The Gophers are loaded this year. Bjugstad is a man among boys out there and unless more guys tear their ACL's at parties on the weekends, they should be a force come April. It will be interesting to see if they can build off the Frozen Four from last year and finish the deal for their 6th national title.
3. Michigan - They are loaded like Minnesota. They have Jacob Trouba coming in as the best recruit in the country to go with Jon Merrill and company on D. Their forwards never seem to struggle to score especially with 2nd rounder Di Giueseppe up front so the only question mark is if they can replace Shawn Hunwick in net.
4.Union- overrated
5. North Dakota- if they stay sober, they should have a decent season and make the NCAA's. Don't buy them as a top 5 team though.
6. Cornell- They should be solid behind Andy Iles but they aren't a top 10 team until they beat someone outside of the EZAC.
7. LowHell - They re bringing back a majority their team from last year so they shouldn't lose a step besides when they play BU.
8. Denver
9. Miami
10.Western Michigan- I think this is a Frozen Four team this year. Saw them play in the NCAA tournament last year and was impressed despite the loss to North Dakota.
11. Ferris State
12. Minnesota- Duluth
13. BU- Best team in the country by April. Mark it down.
14. Notre Dame
15. Maine- Shouldn't be ranked and will probably struggle early relying on so many freshmen
16. Michigan St
17. Harvard- Everyone is pumping up Harvard this year so we will see if they can live up to the hype. I'll be a big fan the first Monday of Feb.
18. Wisconsin- They have some high draft picks coming in with McCabe on D and Kerdiles up front. It will be interesting to see how quickly they can adjust to the college game.
19. Air Force
20. Colorado College

HE teams receiving votes: UNH,Merrimack, UMass, Northeastern,PC aka as everyone but Vermont
- These teams are listed as in order of how many votes they received. The fact that PC is behind Merrimack, UMass and NU show how much of a joke these polls are. PC is going to shock some people outside of HE this year.

Also, here are links to USCHO's top 10 goalies and dmen. The goalies is a joke as last year they had UNH"S Matt " Frozen Pizza" Digaralamo pegged as their number 1 and he lost his job by December. Thankfully they have BC's Parker Milner there this year so Billett will be starting by second semester. The dmen list is more legit with BU's Garrett Noonan at #3. They kind of lose some credibility by putting BC's Patrick Wey at #9 but I'll let it slide for now.