First National Poll Released

USA Hockey/USA Hockey Magazine released the season's official preseason poll today, and Minnesota and Boston College are tied for the top spot in the polls. I guess unlike me, pollsters didn't have to search through last year's Frozen Four photos for a good Minnesota pic, only to be reminded of how just badly BC obliterated them.

Here's what the rest of the poll looks like:

1. Boston College (20)

2. Minnesota(12)

3. Michigan (2)

4. North Dakota

5. Union

6. Cornell

7. UMass-Lowell

8. Denver

9. Miami

10. Notre Dame

11. Western Michigan

12. Minnesota-Duluth

13. Boston University

14. Ferris State

15. Wisconsin

These preseason polls should be taken with a grain of salt. They tend to rely a little more on name recognition and how last year finished up than any sort of qualitative analysis of what a team is expected to do. That's part of the reason why seemingly every year, there is a team that starts the year pretty highly ranked and ends up having a dreadful year--possibly looking in your direction, Michigan. Boston College appears to be the class of college hockey once again this season, and it should be interesting to see if anyone can unseat them.