Part of the draw was to see which Minnesota team would take the ice at the Kohl Center on Friday.

(Part of the draw, of course, was the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry — something a college hockey fan should experience in either building at least once.)

Would it be the Golden Gophers that were shut out in three of their first four games of the season en route to an 0-3-1 record?

Or the team that gained separation from Alaska-Anchorage last weekend and at least temporarily righted the ship?

I can’t say it was either, but for most of the game, it certainly drifted toward the former.

Minnesota’s offense wasn’t effective at all through two periods of what turned out to be a 4-2 loss to Wisconsin. In the brief moments when the Gophers did look dangerous in the Badgers’ zone, they misfired. See Nico Sacchetti’s great chance at the side of the net in the second period, after a shot rebounded to the winger off the back boards. He got stuffed by Badgers goaltender Brett Bennett on the first try, but he had a second effort that he flipped over the bar. He showed the frustration that was evident regardless.

Full credit to Wisconsin’s defense for putting the clamps on the Gophers’ ability to get things started offensively. The Badgers blocked 30 of Minnesota’s 59 shot attempts (51 percent), and that kind of thing gets in a team’s head.

Minnesota’s offense did show life in the third period, but by that point, the Gophers were playing from behind. They made a run at a tying goal after cutting the deficit to 3-2, but Wisconsin held on.

So what do we make of these Gophers, now 2-4-1 both overall and in the WCHA? Are they destined for another middle-of-the-pack finish and spectator status for the NCAA regional not far from home at the Xcel Energy Center? They’ve already lost one of their key offensive forces, Jay Barriball, to season-ending surgery, but they can still field four forward lines of NHL draft picks, like they did Friday. No matter how goaltender Alex Kangas plays — and he gave up a doozy for Blake Geoffrion’s second goal of the game Friday — the offense has to drive the bus for Minnesota.

“It’s a long season, so we’re still figuring things out and guys are still identifying their roles,” Gophers winger Mike Hoeffel said. “But if we just stick to our plan of being a gritty team and being relentless and getting pucks behind their D and just grinding them out and getting scoring opportunities off of that, I think we’ll be a good team.”

If you want to be a team others will call gritty, though, you need to consistently wear down opponents with toughness, and while there were some flashes in that area Friday, it wasn’t enough to earn the moniker.

We’re underway with the 2009-2010 season (at least most of the teams are by now). It’s going to be tough to top last season. Neumann College, the last team into the NCAA tournament, a team that finished fourth in the ECAC West and had to play a play-in game to get into its conference playoffs, stunned the Division III world by defeating Gustavus Adolphus, another Cinderella team, to win the national title. It seems like just a couple of weeks ago that I was in the press box at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, covering the Atlantic Hockey championships but watching in amazement the Division III games from Lake Placid over the internet.

This season looks to keep the craziness going. From Bishops in net to the USCHO.com Division III men’s poll, wackiness is in the air.

Preseason polls tend to be unsettled. Teams that finish at or near the top last season are shown respect irregardless of what their teams may look like this season. Up and coming teams get their due, and then you have the perinnial powers who tend to reload and not rebuild.

This year’s first poll is exceptionally diverse with eight teams getting at least one first place vote and a total of 27 squads getting a mention.

Stay tuned for regular weekly polls beginning November 9.

It’s hard to believe – especially if you’re a fan of an Ivy League team whose season just began, but an entire month of the 2009-10 college hockey season is in the books. We’re now past the point of using last year to try to project what might happen this year, and that is especially true in the case of the race for the Hobey Baker Award.

The last time I wrote, I was looking at what last season might have to say about this season. Now, we’re starting to see who some of this season’s best players have been. With a month of college hockey gone, not only do we have a decent statistical basis on which to evaluate top players, but we also have Player of the Month awards. So, in this entry, I’m going to look at this month’s honorees from across the country and evaluate their likelihood of being a factor in the Hobey race.

In the CCHA, Alaska goaltender Scott Greenham was a surprise winner of the award, not in the sense that he was undeserving, but in the sense that it was hard to see this kind of a performance coming going into the season. The Nanooks went 5-0-1 in October, and with Greenham posting a .949 save percentage and a 1.14 GAA, it’s not hard to see why. Greenham’s play in October put him solidly in what we here at the Hobey Watch like to call “Ryan Miller territory,” and if he stays there, there’s certainly no reason why he couldn’t be a contender for the Hobey. Of course, he’d need some help from the team in front of him to get there, but the Nanooks produced a Hobey finalist last season in Chad Johnson, and they may well have another where that came from.

Now, playing devil’s advocate, all six of the Nanooks’ games in October were in the state of Alaska, against opponents who traveled from the lower 48. When it’s Alaska’s turn to travel and contend with jet lag and all the other occupational hazards that go with going on the road, we’ll start to get a better sense of how much of a contender Greenham is. That isn’t to say he’s not a contender – Johnson certainly was – but we don’t really know yet.

In Atlantic Hockey, the player of the month is R.I.T. defenseman Dan Ringwald, who had nine points (3g, 6a) in seven games for the Tigers. Nice numbers, certainly, especially from a defenseman, but RIT went 2-5-0 in October. On the one hand, that makes Ringwald’s +1 rating all the more impressive. On the other, it’s hard to get noticed on a sub-.500 team, even more so when that team doesn’t play in one of the Big Four conferences. That said, RIT’s five losses were against ECAC Hockey opponents Clarkson, St. Lawrence and Colgate, plus a pair against reigning Atlantic champ Air Force. Given the way the Tigers decimated UConn, it wouldn’t be too shocking to see them emerge as a force to be reckoned with once again in Atlantic Hockey, and if that happens, Ringwald will get more of a look as a potential Hobey finalist. I have my doubts about him as a potential winner, but we’ll see.

In Hockey East, it’s hardly surprising that UMass forward James Marcou is the Player of the Month. All he did was score 11 points in five games as the Minutemen went 4-1. Last year, I couldn’t help but norice how often Marcou’s name turned up on the Hockey East press releases, and I think that this year, he could easily be a finalist. Is he a contender to win the Hobey? I’ll need to see more goals, because we know Hobey likes his forwards to score goals, but Marcou has definitely put himself on the radar as much as anyone else in the season’s first month.

Now, as of this writing, ECAC Hockey, the CHA and the WCHA have not named monthly award winners, so I’m going to have to pick players who grabbed attention.

In ECAC Hockey, the fact that half the conference’s teams started play last weekend makes it tough to pick a player, but Quinnipiac forward Brandon Wong makes it easy. Wong had three goals and six assists for the Bobcats, who went 4-1-0 in October, including a pair of wins at Ohio State. One of Wong’s goals was the game-winner in one of those road wins over the Buckeyes, and performing well in non-conference action is often a good way to get yourself noticed. Wong has made noise before, and has a history as a goal-scorer (27 as a freshman, in case you’ve forgotten), so it’s going to be well worth watching Wong – all about alliteration! – as the season progresses. Can he win the Hobey at Quinnipiac? My gut feeling is no, but then again, if he keeps putting up the numbers, my guts – like John Cusack’s in High Fidelity – may be proven to have doo-doo for brains (yes, I said doo-doo…this is a family site, people!). And I have no problem invoking Cusack…he’s buddies with former Wisconsin Badger Chris Chelios (gotta love the Malibu Mob).

In the CHA, Bemidji State forward Matt Read has 10 points in six games for the 5-0-1 Beavers. Bemidji is going to be watched a good bit more this season – between the Beavers’ run to the Frozen Four last season and their impending WCHA membership – so if Read can continue to produce, he may give Jacques Lamoureux a  run for his money when it comes to that Hobey finalist spot that seems to go to one small-conference player each year.

Finally, there’s the WCHA, where there are three players well worth a Hobey look based on October numbers. One is Wisconsin defenseman Brendan Smith, who has nine points in seven games. Now, the Badgers’ start this season hasn’t exactly been red hot – they’re 3-2-1 with a couple of tough conference losses to Colorado College and Minnesota State, but when the Badgers win, they win big, and Smith’s +2 rating complements his two goals and seven assists nicely. Plus/minus isn’t that big in the Hobey finalist considerations – see Smith’s former teammate, Jamie McBain – but if Smith continues to produce at this level, don’t be surprised to see Smith – a former first-round NHL draft pick and a rare college pick by the Detroit Red Wings – force his name into serious Hobey consideration.

The other players worth watching out of the WCHA after a strong October are a pair of Bulldogs: Minnesota Duluth’s Jack Connolly and Justin Fontaine. What I like about their Octobers is that they’ve both shown excellent balance on the scoresheet, scoring goals AND handing out assists. The Bulldogs are off to a solid start, and if it continues, these two should have a shot to get into the upper echelon of the Hobey talk.

Speaking of which, let the talk continue.

Some thoughts after the fourth weekend of the season:

* I know many do have a real problem with the CCHA using shootouts to decide how points are allocated after tie games. I share some of those concerns, but I am in favor of the shootout as a way to inject some life into what can be a very dull ending to a game.

But if you’re going to use it, the least we can ask you to do is to get it right.

That didn’t happen Friday night in Omaha, where Bowling Green took the extra point for winning the shootout even though an ineligible player scored.

CCHA rules say a player who is serving a penalty at the end of the five-minute overtime is not eligible to shoot in the shootout. Yet, that’s exactly what the Falcons’ Jordan Samuels-Thomas did.

As we learned in the days following Wisconsin’s no-goal-that-should-have-been-a-goal drama in Denver two seasons ago, the result is final once the officials step off the ice, so there was no way to replay the shootout to determine a fair result under the rules. Bowling Green keeps the extra point.

In a statement released before Saturday’s game, CCHA commissioner Tom Anastos called the mishap “unfortunate,” and the league said it would review its policies and protocol.

I feel the same way about this that I did about the Wisconsin-Denver fiasco. Just like in that case instant replay wasn’t to blame, the shootout is not to blame here. It’s the human error that — although prone to happen — gives a black eye.

* I was expecting a little more out of New Hampshire in its two-game series at Wisconsin this weekend.

Like, say, being competitive.

* Here’s something that caught me off-guard when it arrived in the inbox Sunday evening: Minnesota’s pair of victories over Alaska-Anchorage marked its first sweep of a two-game regular-season home series against one opponent since January 2008.

Yeah, that’s a lot of qualifiers, but it still surprised me. The Gophers had nine chances for a true home sweep since taking two from Wayne State on Jan. 4-5, 2008.

Here’s hoping that’s not a bad sign for the future of Alaska-Anchorage’s program.

* Both of the WCHA members-elect are off to unbeaten starts through six games. Despite the shootout, um, loss on Friday, UNO is 4-0-2. Bemidji State is 5-0-1.

Nothing like reinforcing consumer confidence.

* There were scary moments in Denver on Friday when goaltender Marc Cheverie had to be taken from the ice on a stretcher after his left calf took a deep cut from a skate.

It appears there was no major damage in the sense of risk to his career, but Cheverie will miss time — at least a few weeks.

That puts freshman Adam Murray in the solo spotlight a lot earlier than expected, and he’ll have to bring up his stats — 1-2-1 record, 4.27 goals-against average, .856 save percentage — to keep the Pioneers going at the pace it appeared they were reaching before Cheverie’s injury.

* Michigan State earned its sixth victory of the season on Saturday by beating Western Michigan. That’s news only in relation to last season, when the Spartans didn’t reach six wins until they beat Alaska on Jan. 2 en route to a dismal 10-23-5 record.

You don’t need to look much past Michigan State’s goals-for/goals-against split to see the difference. Last year, it was 1.63/3.11. So far this season, it’s 3.62/2.50.

* It’s about time to start downgrading teams in my top 20 ballot for having losing records. With that being said, here’s what I submitted for this week:

1. Denver
2. Miami
3. North Dakota
4. Michigan
5. Yale
6. Massachusetts-Lowell
7. Notre Dame
8. Cornell
9. Nebraska-Omaha
10. Boston University
11. Alaska
12. Bemidji State
13. Colorado College
14. Princeton
15. Vermont
16. Michigan State
17. Wisconsin
18. Boston College
19. Quinnipiac
20. Massachusetts

A night like this was one of the things that was part of the recruiting pitch to Blake Kessel. New Hampshire had games scheduled against Wisconsin, and the Wildcats used that as incentive to lure the defenseman out East from his hometown near Madison, Wis.

Kessel’s on-ice homecoming Friday didn’t start well and didn’t finish well, and he wasn’t feeling too upbeat about either development.

As the starters skated around in the interval between the end of the national anthem and the opening faceoff, Wisconsin captain Blake Geoffrion crossed the center red line and appeared to brush up against Kessel and start chirping at the UNH sophomore.

“He’s just going to come up and say whatever he wants,” Kessel said. “That’s their captain. He can say whatever he wants; I’m going to sit there and I’m going to back myself up. If he’s going to talk the talk — it’s a big thing in college hockey where I guess you can talk, but normally you have to back it up at this level, and that’s kind of a tough thing. You’ve got to listen to the crap. Obviously, it’s going to come from them guys, me being back at home. But it’s not like I can’t give it right back at them. It’s just part of the game.

“Off the ice, I have no problem. I’ve got good friends on the team, obviously. But when a guy comes right off the opening draw and comes at me and runs into me before the first draw even starts, I’m going to take that a little personal. It’s kind of something that’s ridiculous where they allow a guy to come on our side of the red line before the game even starts.

“That’s not going to fly anywhere else. But I guess it’s part of the game. We’ve got to deal with it. Tonight, it’s not even really about that. I’m more disappointed just the way that the game turned out more than anything.”

Kessel’s Wildcats looked listless in much of a 4-1 loss at the Kohl Center on Friday.

“We didn’t come to play off the bat, and they jumped all over us,” Kessel said. “That was the difference in the game, just the start right there. When they’re carrying momentum like that, it’s tough to overcome.”

The scene was quite unlike the last time a Kessel played at the Kohl Center. On Jan. 28, 2006, Phil Kessel — Blake’s brother — scored the clinching goal for Minnesota in a 3-1 victory over the Badgers, then cupped his ear as if to welcome the boos from the crowd, which had followed the long recruiting battle between UW and the Gophers for the forward’s services.

Blake Kessel was introduced as part of New Hampshire’s starting lineup Friday night. No audible boos. A little bit of applause.

He played in front of more than 30 family members and friends, including sister Amanda, a senior at Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school in Minnesota who is considering Wisconsin and Minnesota among her college destinations.

“It’s a lot of fun to have them watch me play, but it’s more important to win the game than to have them watch,” Kessel said.

He had already played Wisconsin once — in his first collegiate game, even. Last season, the Wildcats thumped the Badgers 5-1 in Durham, and Kessel had an assist and was plus-2.

“This year, I think it’s a little bit more pressure on me,” Kessel said. “That was early in the season last year. This year, I feel a little bit more pressure of having to step up.”

There’s a little bit of pressure on Kessel and UNH to step up in Saturday’s series finale.

“We feel we’ve got something to prove, obviously. Tonight was not the way we can play at all.”

Trying out a new weekly installment of the blog — some random (and not-so-random) thoughts on the week prior.

* I’ve never seen this before. And neither have you, unless you were a Minnesota hockey follower in 1930 and were around for those momentous games against the Tulsa Athletic Club and Wisconsin.

Denver blanked the Golden Gophers in both games of a WCHA series on this, the third weekend of the season. Minnesota hadn’t been shut out in consecutive games since a 0-0 tie with Tulsa and a 2-0 loss to Wisconsin.

You can argue that it was a shot in the dark, a complete anomaly. But look at the Gophers’ season to date: four games, three of them shutouts. It doesn’t take much to get them riled up about the Gophers in the Twin Cities, so I suspect this isn’t sitting well.

Minnesota has Alaska-Anchorage heading to Mariucci next weekend, which you normally would think would be a welcome sight. But given the Seawolves’ victory over North Dakota on Saturday, maybe not. Of course, the games probably will be welcome after what I’m guessing will be a pretty grueling week of practice.

* I posted this on the USCHO Twitter feed when it happened, but in case you missed it: When Boston University lost to Notre Dame on Tuesday, it fell to 0-2 and became the first defending national champion to open with two losses since Denver in 2005.

Yeah, not too long ago, really, so it wasn’t a stunning development. But remember that the Pioneers didn’t make the NCAAs in 2005-06 despite a 21-15-3 overall record and a 17-8-3 WCHA mark and second-place conference finish.

Those early losses seem to haunt teams, so it was important that the Terriers responded with a victory over Michigan on Saturday. A home-and-home series with Massachusetts-Lowell next weekend should tell us quite a bit about both sides.

* Since everything I write here today seems to have at least a connection to Denver, here’s another one: Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky earned his 500th victory on Saturday.

That’s in a little over 23 seasons, working out to an average of a shade under 22 victories per season. By comparison, Ron Mason, the all-time wins leader with 924, averaged over 25 wins a season over 36 seasons. Not a fair comparison, of course — I’m not sure there is one when Ron Mason is at the other side — but interesting to note.

* Wisconsin got called for two major checking from behind penalties in the third period Saturday night at Minnesota State, and the Mavericks scored the eventual game-winning goal on the power play resulting from the second.

And they were bad checks from behind. Craig Smith got Geoff Irwin first and rightly earned a game disqualification that will keep him out of Friday’s game against New Hampshire.

Wisconsin tri-captain Ryan McDonagh hit Eriah Hayes 4:30 later. That one could have merited a DQ as well, but the defenseman got off with just the major and game misconduct.

The double trouble got me thinking about the idea of progressive penalties when a team is called for multiple checking from behind majors in the same game. My first reaction was that maybe you punish a team more for the second major in the same game to try to emphasize how awful it is that you saw it happen earlier and did it again.

But leaving your team on a five-minute penalty kill is already a pretty hefty fine. Unless we start seeing an uptick in checking from behind majors, maybe status quo is punishment enough.

* In beating Michigan Tech 8-5 on Saturday, Colorado College scored five times in 10 power-play chances and added two shorthanded goals (one into an empty net). A night earlier, CC scored three power-play goals and an empty-netter in a 4-1 victory.

I try to give the benefit of the doubt, but there is no good light to be found there for the Tech penalty kill, which is now operating at a national-worst 60 percent early this season (18-for-30).

* Here’s my top 20:

1. Denver
2. Miami
3. North Dakota
4. Boston University
5. Massachusetts-Lowell
6. Michigan
7. Yale
8. Vermont
9. Notre Dame
10. Cornell
11. Nebraska-Omaha
12. Bemidji State
13. Princeton
14. Colorado College
15. Quinnipiac
16. Boston College
17. Alaska
18. Massachusetts
19. Michigan State
20. St. Cloud State

Yeah, I know, I’m a bit late to the party this year, but better late than never.

Welcome back to the Hobey Watch blog, where I, your humble correspondent, analyze the race for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, and attempt to predict the finalists and winner for college’s top individual honor.

Now, I’m pleased to report that due to a couple of developments since I came back to USCHO last year, I’ll be able to see more college hockey this season, both on TV and in person, which should give me additional perspective for my projections and analysis this season. However, as is my custom, I’ll start with the Casting Call, wherein I look at last year’s group of Hobey finalists, and look to fill those players’ roles for this season.

This part of my job is about as easy as it’s been, as four of last year’s Hobey finalists have returned: Air Force forward Jacques Lamoureux, Colgate forward David McIntyre, Princeton goaltender Zane Kalemba, and Michigan forward Louie Caporusso.
  
Now, never mind that we haven’t had a repeat Hobey finalist since I’ve been doing these “Casting Calls.” Big things are expected from all of those players, and I’ll join in those expectations. I’m not re-casting their roles just yet.

Jamie McBain is one of the three Hobey finalists I didn’t pick last season, mostly because of the issue with his plus/minus rating, but the fact remains that he was one of the nation’s most potent offensive defensemen last season, albeit for a team that missed the NCAA tournament.

I wouldn’t expect Denver to be sitting home in March – although it has happened to a team with high preseason expectations before (2004-05 Minnesota Duluth, anyone?) – but that’s really not the concern here. What I’m looking at is the fact that Patrick Wiercioch stepped in at Denver and became one of the nation’s top offensive defensemen. If he can replicate that performance as a sophomore, and if the Pioneers can live up to their high expectations, I’d look for Wiercioch to be a big part of the Hobey conversation.

Wisconsin’s top rival Minnesota also missed the NCAA tournament last year, and as the Gophers look to change that, I’ve got my eye on Cade Fairchild. He and Wiercioch are the top two offensive defensemen returning to college hockey, and both actually put up more points than did Jamie McBain. However, the Badgers came closer to the NCAA tournament than did the Gophers, and we know Hobey doesn’t especially like freshmen

When I think of Alaska’s Chad Johnson and Northeastern’s Brad Thiessen, I think of two goalies who took a traditional non-factor and put them in the mix come March. Obviously, Thiessen’s Huskies got into the NCAA tournament, while Johnson’s Nanooks did not, but the profile is still largely the same. I’m going to pick two players here for this role.

As a sophomore. Dartmouth’s Jody O’Neill may be a bit young for the role, but he was a major factor in Dartmouth’s quick turnaround his freshman year. Evan Stephens and Joe Stejskal should lead a strong blueline corps in front of him, so O’Neill will have a chance to put the Big Green in the NCAA tournament after spending the majority of Bob Gaudet’s tenure on the wrong side of the bubble. If that happens, look for him to get some Hobey buzz.

Certainly, the perennial also-ran with the highest expectations this season is UMass-Lowell, and the River Hawks have gotten strong goaltending in the past from both Carter Hutton and Nevin Hamilton. If one of those two netminders can grab the reins and drive the River Hawks into the NCAA tournament, that’s a good place to look for a Hobey finalist.

Viktor Stalberg was one of three Hobey finalists I didn’t see coming last season, so it’s going to be a little bit difficult for me to figure out who fills the role. It’s tempting to pick his younger brother, Vermont freshman Sebastian Stalberg, but let’s let the kid adjust to college hockey a bit, huh?

I think the things that stood out to me about Stalberg when I had the chance to watch him are his skill level and the balance he was able to strike between goals and assists. It’s a combination that Louie Caporusso has at Michigan, obviously, but he’s already on the list.

Boston University junior Nick Bonino is the top returning scorer for the reigning national champions, and the top returning goal-scorer as well. He was a bit more of an assist man last season, but with two finishers like Brandon Yip and Jason Lawrence graduating, Bonino will be called on to keep putting the puck in the net, and if you’re looking for potential Hobey contenders, a guy who had 50 points a year ago is a good place to start.

Army’s Owen Meyer fits more in the roll of “Small Conference Superstar” currently held by Jacques Lamoureux, but he’s worth keeping an eye on if Lamoureux’s numbers drop this season. He was part of a really nice line two seasons ago with Luke Flicek and Bryce Hollweg, and had 21 goals and 18 assists. His numbers fell off a bit last season, but if he can come back strong as a senior, I’d look at him for a potential Hobey finalist spot.

Colin Wilson’s low goal total last season made it hard to take him seriously as a true contender for the Hobey, but there was no denying that he was one of college hockey’s top players last season, and a major factor in Boston University’s run to the NCAA title. A player who hands out the helpers with the skill and frequency that Wilson showed last season will be part of the mix.

In some ways, Jordan Schroeder is almost the opposite of Wilson: he certainly doesn’t have have Wilson’s stacked physique, and while Wilson’s stock skyrocketed heading into the draft (largely due to said physique), Schroeder fell from a projected Top-5 pick to a late first-round grab by the Canucks. Still, Schroeder is a top assist man, and like Wilson, he impressed at the World Junior Championship. What’s more, like Wilson last year, Schroeder is part of a proud program looking to restore itself to glory after missing the NCAA tournament.

The other assist man I’d keep an eye on is Aaron Palushaj of Michigan. Some people had him pegged for a finalist spot last year, but that spot went to Caporusso because Hobey prefers goals. That said, Palushaj showed himself to be an elite setup man, and there is an opening for one of those this season.

(Added 10/21: My bad on the Palushaj pick…insert grumbling about early signings here…let’s give it another go…Ryan Lasch and Garrett Roe of St. Cloud have been on my radar for a while, and they’re both upperclassmen now. Lasch has filled this role before, when he was a Hobey finalist two seasons ago, and Roe was one of my picks as a Hobey finalist last season, although the real voters disagreed. I feel like one or both of these guys could easily get back to that level one more time.)

Let’s be perfectly honest. There’s no one in college hockey this season whose overall package of on- and off-ice can be compared to Matt Gilroy. This isn’t fawning or putting Gilroy up on a pedestal: it’s just a matter of fact. Really, how often do you find a walk-on who switches positions as a freshman, develops into an all-American as a sophomore, turns down more than 20 pro offers after his junior year, then winds up captaining the best team in the country to a national championship as a senior? It just doesn’t happen, and that it did with Matt Gilroy will long remain one of the best stories that college hockey has ever produced. I would say the same for Jeff Lerg and Jacques Lamoureux as well, but we’re not talking about those guys right now.

As good as Gilroy’s story is, it doesn’t make him last year’s Hobey winner without the on-ice component, so let’s start with that. I’m looking for a defenseman in a leadership position on an elite team that missed the NCAA tournament last season (as BU did in 2008).

I just talked to Wisconsin’s Ryan McDonagh for a New York Daily News feature, and the Badgers certainly fit the profile as a traditional power that watched from home back in March. As a first-round NHL draft pick and former Mr. Hockey in his home state of Minnesota, McDonagh doesn’t have Gilroy’s underdog story, and he also doesn’t have the track record that Gilroy had built at BU before last season. Still, he’s likely to eventually be Gilroy’s teammate with the New York Rangers after Montreal traded his draft rights this past summer, and McBain’s departure will leave some bigtime minutes to fill, and McDonagh, one of the Badgers’ tri-captains this season, is a likely candidate to do some of the filling.

The other guy I’d keep an eye on is Chris Summers of Michigan. Sure, Michigan didn’t miss the NCAA tournament last season, but the Wolverines did take a kick in the collective gut with their first-round loss to Air Force, so there’s a certain amount of pride to be reclaimed. As for Summers himself, he’s Michigan’s captain, and he’s a first-round draft pick who opted to play all four years of college hockey (although, when your NHL draft rights are held by the ugly mess of an organization that is the Phoenix Coyotes, that probably makes the decision easier). Summers has seen time both at forward and on defense in his time at Michigan, and he’ll need a big breakout season to get into the Hobey conversation, but he’s certainly the kind of guy I’d keep my eye on.

Of course, as we’ve seen, my preseason casting call isn’t a particularly reliable indicator as to who’s going to be a Hobey finalist at the end of the year, but then, picking teams at the beginning of the season is dicey enough, let alone picking players. As such, this is as good a place to start as any, and we’ll see where it goes from here.

Stay tuned.

The USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I preseason men’s poll is out today, and I’ll be the first one to tell you that it doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot.

Really, what do we have to go on? Last season and a lot of conjecture, neither of which tends to amount to anything definitive a few weeks into the season.

Let’s look back at last year’s preseason poll. We had Boston College ranked first and Colorado College third. Neither made the NCAA tournament.

If that happens again, only one of Denver, Boston University and Michigan will make the field of 16. Sounds pretty far-fetched, right? Maybe it is, but just remember that being near the top of the poll at this point isn’t as much of an indicator of success as it is a forecast of potential. And you’ve always got to be careful when throwing the word “potential” out there.

That being said, I tried to put together as educated a guess as I could when I filled out my first ballot of the season. Here’s how it looked:

1. Denver
2. Boston University
3. Michigan
4. Notre Dame
5. Miami
6. North Dakota
7. Yale
8. UMass-Lowell
9. New Hampshire
10. Minnesota
11. Vermont
12. Wisconsin
13. Cornell
14. Princeton
15. Boston College
16. Ohio State
17. St. Cloud State
18. Harvard
19. Northeastern
20. Air Force

If you’re counting, that’s six teams from Hockey East, five from the WCHA, four each from the CCHA and the ECAC and one from Atlantic Hockey. That’s the same breakdown as the top 20 in the RPI at selection time last season. That’s not a coincidence.

The actual poll shows six teams from Hockey East, six from the WCHA (I didn’t think Minnesota-Duluth would get as much attention after losing so much from last season), four from the CCHA, three from the ECAC and one from Atlantic Hockey.

Nice to see you again. Good summer? Ours was fine, thanks.

The offseason is just about over — in case you missed it, college hockey won’t look quite the same after this season because of what took place over the last few months — and soon enough, USCHO will be getting back to full speed.

Things have already started moving, with the preseason conference polls rolling out here and there. For the second year in a row, I compiled the results for a WCHA media poll (this year, for madison.com), and the benefit of that is that I get the raw data to detail for you here. I could spend way too much time doing that, so here we go.

(The actual poll, along with the coaches’ poll, can be found here.)

It was absolutely no surprise that Denver was the overwhelming favorite. The Pioneers return 2.93 goals per game from last season (that statistic, however, includes stats from Dustin Jackson, who will miss the season with a broken right leg), are stacked on defense with Patrick Wiercioch leading the way and have a dependable goalie in Marc Cheverie.

There wasn’t that much of a gap between the teams picked for second, third and fourth, which tells me that North Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota should be right in the mix. I think everyone’s getting the idea that if you think North Dakota lost too much to be a contender, you’re probably wrong. The Sioux lost five regular forwards and three regular defensemen, but they’re a pretty solid pick for one of the top spots — 24 of the 25 voters had them in the top four.

People think St. Cloud State will be good enough to make the top five, and that might be shorting the Huskies considering the top-end offense they have in the fold.

Eight of the 25 voters picked Minnesota-Duluth to finish in the top five. Six others picked the Bulldogs to end up eighth or ninth. It seems there are a lot of questions with UMD, and after it lost nearly half of its regular lineup, they seem valid.

More people picked Colorado College for eighth than seventh, but four voters picked the Tigers to finish in the top five, compared to just one for Minnesota State. Alaska-Anchorage and Michigan Tech were unanimous bottom-half picks.

Here’s how my ballot looked:

1. Denver
2. North Dakota
3. Minnesota
4. Wisconsin
5. St. Cloud State
6. Colorado College
7. Minnesota State
8. Minnesota-Duluth
9. Alaska-Anchorage
10. Michigan Tech

It’s funny how all of this seems to make sense now, only to look so pathetic when comparing it to the final standings in March.

Minnesota forward Jordan Schroeder got 14 of the 23 votes for player of the year (not all voters wanted to cast ballots for the individual awards). Denver players had their votes split — Wiercioch got four, forward Rhett Rakhshani got three and goaltender Marc Cheverie got one — while North Dakota defenseman Chay Genoway also got one vote.

Wiercioch got my vote. Nothing against Schroeder, but I thought Wiercioch was a better player last season, too. Of course, I saw the Denver defenseman play against Wisconsin a bunch of times last year, so maybe I saw his best games.

Seven players got votes for the rookie of the year — a pretty typical response considering you never really know what to expect from freshmen. St. Cloud State goaltender Mike Lee was the leader with seven. Minnesota-Duluth defenseman Dylan Olsen had four votes, while Wisconsin forward Craig Smith, Minnesota defenseman Nick Leddy and North Dakota forward Danny Kristo had three each. Denver forward Drew Shore and Minnesota forward Zach Budish got one vote each.

I had a tough time with this one, but I went with Kristo. I understand why Lee got many of the votes, but I just wasn’t ready to commit to a goalie that may not play every night this season. With a lot of big-time players gone from last year’s team in North Dakota, Kristo should get his chance.

The voting for all-league team shook out like this:

Forwards — Schroeder 22, Ryan Lasch (SCSU) 19, Rakhshani 6, Justin Fontaine (UMD) 6, Joe Colborne (DU) 3, Chris VandeVelde (UND) 3, Anthony Maiani (DU) 3, Tyler Ruegsegger (DU) 2, Kael Mouillierat (MSU) 2, Garrett Roe (SCSU) 2, Derek Stepan (UW) 2, Mike Connolly (UMD) 1, Jack Connolly (UMD) 1.

Defensemen — Wiercioch 20, Genoway 16, Ryan McDonagh (UW) 6, Cade Fairchild (Minnesota) 3, Garrett Raboin (SCSU) 2, Aaron Ness (Minnesota) 1.

Goaltenders — Cheverie 17, Brad Eidsness (UND) 5, Lee 2.

My ballot had Lasch, Schroeder, Rakhshani, Wiercioch, Genoway and Eidsness. I went on my best judgments from last season and hoped that things carried over to this year.

Another year, another poll. Now it’s time to work on the national top 20. Anyone have any suggestions on that one?

Feedback? Contact me here.

Matt Gilroy, welcome to the club.

No, not the Hobey Baker winners. This group is even more elusive than that one.

In the first 28 years of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, only four players have won the Hobey and the NCAA title in the same season: Tony Hrkac at North Dakota in 1987, Lane MacDonald at Harvard in 1989, Paul Kariya at Maine in 1993, and, most recently, Jordan Leopold at Minnesota in 2002.

Saturday night, Gilroy became the fifth member of that elite group, although to hear him after BU’s national championship win over Miami, that was – as it should be for any hockey player worth his salt – the furthest thing from his mind.

“I wouldn’t have won anything this year if it wasn’t for the team I was on,” Gilroy said. “My co-captains John McCarthy and Brian Strait did an unbelievable job, and what we did as a team was why I won the Hobey Baker.”

Now, the fact of the matter is this: the story of this night is not about Matt Gilroy. What happened on Saturday night at the Verizon Center was never going to make Gilroy any more or less worthy a Hobey Baker winner. There are certainly players that we have come back to and questioned over the years as to whether they deserved to win the Hobey. Matt Gilroy will not be one of them.

However, to see Gilroy reach even more rarified air raises the question: why are there so few? Why have only five players in nearly 30 years accomplished this feat?

Part of it, of course, is the simple fact that, as Brendan Morrison so infamously said, “The best team doesn’t always win.” Now, he’s taken a lot of flak for saying that – there is such a thing as timing, after all - but it’s absolutely true. Just ask Notre Dame: you can make a great argument that the team that lost to Michigan State at the Midwest Regional in 2007 and the team that lost to Bemidji State this year were better teams than the team that made it to last year’s national championship game.

Jack Parker touched on it when he said, “The teams that are supposed to win this tournament, most of the time, don’t. They think they had a great year, and they come in as the No. 1 seed, but the team that plays great in March and April is the team that wins the tournament.”

Having a player like a Matt Carle, or a Ryan Miller, or a Brendan Morrison can certainly contribute to the feeling that you’re going to win a national title…although great coaches like George Gwozdecky, Ron Mason and Red Berenson know perfectly well that it takes more than that.

Another element is the way that the Hobey is awarded. I’ve written about it at length this season in regards to Colin Wilson: he didn’t score the number of goals necessary to win the Hobey as a forward. That may not be fair – in fact, it probably isn’t – but the Hobey Baker voters have a history of liking forwards who score lots of goals. Forwards who score lots of goals don’t necessarily play on teams that have the balance to go far in the NCAA tournament.

In that sense, it makes sense that Matt Gilroy is joining Leopold, Kariya, MacDonald and Hrkac in that elite group, because he didn’t win as a numbers guy. He won as a two-way defenseman who had an outstanding four-year career, turned down more than 20 pro contract offers last summer, and came back to lead his team to the Frozen Four as one of the best captains in BU history. Players like that are key members of championship teams, so it’s only fitting that this man is one of those.

In the end, though, the answer to why there aren’t more of these guys, is much simpler than that.

“I think it’s hard to do either one of those things, period,” Parker said. “And, therefore, to double up in the same season is a real difficult task. I say this all the time. People don’t understand unless you’re in the trenches how difficult it is to win the national championship.

“And then, people don’t understand how difficult it is for people’s opinions – a lot of sports writers, a lot of different coaches and a lot of different people to vote get in the Hobey Baker. How they come up with who is the best player in the nation is a hard thing to do. It’s a hard thing to win. You’ve got two very, very difficult things to do. To place them both in the year doubles up the odds.”

Really, in the end, it makes all the sense in the world: winning the biggest thing you can as an individual and as a team in college hockey is about as difficult as it gets in college hockey for any one player.

Whether Matt Gilroy turns out to be one of the greatest players ever to play college hockey remains to be seen; he’ll certainly be well-paid in the near future, and what happens after that…well, we’ll see. However, after this season, there’s no doubt that he deserves to be remembered as one of college hockey’s all-time greats.

Goodnight from the Verizon Center.