NCAA Men’s Hockey Top 20 11/5/07

The polls weren’t friendly to BU this week.  I’ll update the table with the poll tomorrow, but the Terriers didn’t crack the top 20 this week despite two strong performances.  It does make some sense, as UMass Lowell and Providence are not the two strongest teams in the NCAA.  With a few more wins, we should be able to eke our way to a ranking again.  The poll didn’t move around much either, with a few changes here and there, but the teams that were near the top stayed there, and there were no real dramatic changes, save Minnesota dropping 6 spots to 14.

Did I see any surprises in the poll?  Not really.  It does seem like Enrico Blasi gave his vote to Michigan State though.  I guess he thinks that they are the second strongest team, because without a doubt Miami is looking like the early favorite to take it all home.  They’re even doing without Nathan Davis, their preseason Hobey Baker favorite.  He should be back later on this season, and Miami will be even more dangerous.  Let’s just hope they don’t suffer a second half breakdown, unless it is in the favor of BU right?

It’s still early in the season, and the polls will be moving around a lot more.  There are some teams that have established themselves as the elite, and will have the targets on their backs.  You know who you are, Miami, North Dakota, Michigan, Michigan State, New Hampshire.  Boston University has definitely seen it from Michigan.  For us Hockey East fans, we have to worry about New Hampsire first, but all of them are strong teams.  I think what will determine who is the best is how the teams handle adversity.  Miami is doing that best right now, and so they are the best.  New Hampshire just had a tough loss at home to Northeastern, so we’ll see how they respond this weekend against a feisty Mass-Lowell team and the always tough Boston College Eagles.

Speaking of adversity, the Eagles are still without Brock Bradford (Broken Arm), Brett Motherwell and Brian O’ Hanley (Violation of Team Rules).  They are currently riding Goaltender John Muse and the strong play of their freshmen.  If I were an Eagles fan, I would be a bit concerned as to how they will handle the grind and more physical play of college hockey.  Does anyone know what happened with the two suspended guys?  I’ve been trying to figure it out forever but BC is very hush hush on it.  Not that its something to be proud of, but I’d still like to know.

Finally, while there are elite teams, we know that they are beatable (except for Miami so far).  North Dakota has lost.  Michigan has lost.   New Hampshire has lost.  They weren’t to the strongest teams either, so the parity is still there.  This is a good sign for college hockey.  I’m hoping for an exciting season, with plenty of good games to watch.  You can be sure that I’ll be catchin all of the BU hockey I can at Agganis, and as much as I can on TV.

I wish I could say more about the teams playing in the other conferences, but sadly I haven’t seen many of them play.  If you’re reading this and you have some words that you’d like to put in about your team, please let me know in a comment or go to the forums and leave a post!

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