Poll: Hockey East coaches foresee unaltered landscape

It was probably the last thing one would want in the way of intrigue, but Tuesday’s freshly disclosed Hockey East preseason coaches’ poll is calling for a strict duplicate of the 2008-09 regular season standings. This, if it in fact comes to fruition, would mean yet another venture to the revered Lake Whittemore off the coast of the University of New Hampshire for the conference championship weekend, and yet another bye into that stage for the likes of Boston College.

This would also mean yet another Beantown Showdown between third-seeded Boston University and sixth-rate Northeastern in one quarterfinal clash, and yet another Battle for Southern New England between Providence and Connecticut in the other. Same times (364 days later), same places.

Well, at least in those hypothetical events, a few healthy rivalries are guaranteed to intensify. But beneath the 1-through-8 surface, the poll exposes a bonus morsel of hope for the likes of Providence, which garnered two of the anonymous first place votes while the remaining six were split between UNH and BC. The four-time defending champion Wildcats have laid claim to virtual first place by way of earning more cumulative points (50).

Which brings up another stark item of interest: the dividing line between fourth-place PC and fifth-place UConn, i.e. the equator of the standings and the deciding factor for postseason home ice, shows the most gaping leap in point total between any two teams. The Friars were allotted a total of 43 voter points, a mere seven behind New Hampshire, but 12 ahead of the Huskies’ 31. UConn is, in turn, trailed by Northeastern (27), Vermont (22), and Maine (20).

Are we looking at a definitive Big Four in the WHEA? Even if not intentionally, that’s the implicit conclusion by the eight aggregate minds behind Tuesday’s poll.

Yet at the same time, the biggest of those Big Four is still slated to be the Big Blue Machine from New Hampshire, and nobody is expected to upgrade or relinquish enough force to shuffle the final leaderboard.