Providence is the team to beat in Hockey East this season, according to both coaches and media around the league. The Friars picked up seven of 12 first-place votes in the league coaches poll and 26 of 36 first-place votes in the preseason poll conducted by the Hockey East Writers & Broadcasters Association.
Boston College finished second in both polls, while Merrimack, UMass and newcomers UConn finished in the bottom three spots in both. The two polls differed quite a bit when it came to the middle of the league, though.
Here are the two polls (first-place votes are in parentheses, voting point totals are listed to the right):
Coaches poll
1. Providence (7) – 127
2. Boston College (3) – 120
3. Notre Dame – 94
4. Northeastern (1) – 90
5. New Hampshire – 86
6. Boston University – 83
7. UMass-Lowell (1) – 79
8. Vermont – 75
9. Maine – 74
10. Merrimack – 37
11. UMass – 33
12. UConn – 26
Media poll
1. Providence (26) – 414
2. Boston College (8) – 399
3. Boston University (2) – 309
4. Northeastern – 305
5. UMass-Lowell – 267
6. Maine – 256
7. (tie) Notre Dame – 231
7. (tie) Vermont – 231
9. New Hamsphire – 171
10. Merrimack – 97
11. UMass – 80
12. UConn – 48
For what it’s worth, my submission to the media poll aligned more closely with my fellow media than the coaches. I had the same top four and bottom four as the media poll, with Maine, Vermont, UMass-Lowell and Notre Dame — in that order — in my 5-8 spots.
The media also picked a preseason All-Hockey East team:
F- Ross Mauermann (Senior, Providence)
F- Kevin Roy (Junior, Northeastern)
F- Devin Shore (Junior, Maine)
D- Ben Hutton (Junior, Maine)
D- Michael Matheson (Junior, Boston College)
G- Jon Gillies (Junior, Providence)
I had four players the same, but I had Boston University freshman Jack Eichel ahead of Mauermann at forward, and BU junior (and Bruins draft pick) Matt Grzelcyk ahead of Hutton on defense.