Boston College Hockey: 4 Days Until The Puck Drops

There are now just four days until the defending National Champions begin their title defense at Matthews Arena against Northeastern on Saturday night.

The Eagles crushed the University of Toronto on Sunday night, outshooting the Varsity Blues 43-13 en route to an 8-0 exhibition win. Steven Whitney, Kevin Hayes, Brian Gibbons, Barry Almeida, Tommy Cross, Joe Whitney, Jimmy Hayes and Philip Samuelsson all lit the lamp for the Eagles. 

Whitney Live Chat. HockeyEastOnline.com will be hosting a live chat with BC senior forward Joe Whitney in an hour (1:15 PM EDT). Be sure to stop by and ask Whitney your questions about the Eagles' upcoming season.

More Preseason Polls. Another preseason poll, another #1 ranking for the National Champions. BC tops the 2010 Preseason USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll, receiving 993 points and a whopping 45 of 50 first place votes. Fellow Hockey East programs Maine (#7), New Hampshire (#10) and Boston University (#14) also were ranked in the USCHO preseason poll.

One of the few polls that doesn't have BC at #1 is Inside College Hockey's Preseason Power Rankings, who have the Eagles second behind North Dakota. Inside College Hockey ranks all 58 programs, and the rest of Hockey East breaks down as follows: Maine (#8), New Hampshire (#9), Boston University (#14), Northeastern (#22), Vermont (#23), Merrimack (#26), UMass Lowell (#32), Massachusetts (#38), Providence (#50).

Hockey East Season Previews Confirm What We Already Know. With the season just a few days away, here are two Hockey East season previews from Fear The Triangle (UMass blog) and NESN. Predictably, both previews have the Eagles at the top of the heap. Here is a York interview from last Wednesday's Hockey East's media day.

Paul Kelly, the leader of College Hockey Inc., sat down for an interview with Matt Gunning on SB Nation's Rink Side Radio last week. You can listen to the podcast here, where Kelly talks about a number of topics of interest to college hockey fans. 

TV Updates. In addition to the games that will be broadcast on NESN, Hockey East's new TV deal with CBS College Sports will add three more games to the national TV schedule: 

Friday, December 3 - Boston College at Boston University, 7:30 PM CBSCS (DirecTV 613)
Saturday, December 4 - Boston University at Boston College, 8 PM CBSCS
Friday, January 7 - Providence at Boston College, 7 PM NESN (DirecTV 628)
Sunday, January 16 - Boston College at Maine, 7 PM CBSCS 
Friday, January 21 - Boston College at Boston University, 7 PM NESN
Monday, February 7 - Beanpot Opening Round: Boston College vs. Boston University, 8 PM NESN
Monday, February 14 - Beanpot Championship (BC/BU vs. Harvard/Northeastern), 8 PM NESN 
Friday, March 4 - New Hampshire at Boston College, 7 PM NESN