BC Interruption Hockey East Power Poll: Week 1

It's officially a game week for Boston College hockey, so it's time to roll out our staff power poll. Each week, BCI's hockey writers, as well as Shep Hayes from the Eastern Bias podcast and BU blog Bloggin' on Babcock, will weigh in with their ranking of each Hockey East team to debate and discuss. With a week of preseason games in the books and with real hockey just days away, who leads the pack?

#1: Boston College, 58 points (3 first place votes)

Despite the exhibition loss to UNB, BC still leads the pack nationally and in our own power poll, with 3 of 5 voters picking the Eagles as #1.

#2: UMass Lowell, 55 points (2 first place votes)

Grant and Joe both had UML at #1 in Hockey East going in to the season, so seeing the River Hawks top a very good New Brunswick team the day after they beat BC did nothing to change that perception.

#3 Providence, 49 points

The defending national champions delivered a righteous beatdown of Simon Frasier over the weekend, but they are one of the weaker Canadian teams who came to town for exhibitions. PC still has a lot of weapons left over from their title team, but it remains to be seen how they can replace the great Gillies.

#4 BU, 48 points

BU picked up a solid 4-2 exhibition win over Acadia, in which Sean Maguire returned from his year away and looked steady playing the second half of the game. He might seize back the starting goalie job.

#5 Northeastern, 39 Points

The Huskies put on a snipe show on Sunday in a 10-2 shellacking of Simon Frasier. This team has a lot of offensive weapons, but the talent has rarely been in question with Northeastern in recent years - it's whether or not they can make anything of it.

#6 Vermont, 35 points

The Catamounts joined BC on the list of exhibition losers, falling to Acadia University. We appreciate the company, you guys.

#7 Notre Dame, 29 points

We won't see Notre Dame in exhibition action until this weekend. This team remains a bit of a mystery, in both the short term and in the long term of how they'll do within Hockey East.

#8 UConn, 25 points

UConn's coming, but how quickly are they coming? Our panel sees them moving up one slot and hosting an #octofinals matchup.

#9 UNH, 21 points

There are some rumblings that maybe UNH might have a decent team again this year, and they did show some explosiveness in coming back from a 4-2 deficit to beat St. Francis Xavier 6-4.

#10 Maine, 13 points

Maine didn't face any Canadian teams in exhibition play, which is weird because they're basically already in Canada. They get things started with Michigan State and North Dakota this weekend in the ice breaker. Right in to the fire!

#11 Merrimack, 12 points

Merrimack eased to a 4-1 win over St. Francis Xavier in their preseason tuneup.

#12 UMass, 6 points

UMass was a near-unanimous choice for the cellar after losing some of their only good players from a team that was already very bad last year.

Individual Ballots

Joe Gravellese	Laura Berestecki	Grant Salzano	Arthur Bailin	Shep Hayes