Media poll vs the Coaches poll.

Here are the results of the Capital times media poll.

STANDINGS
Team (first-place votes) Points Last year
1. Colorado College (22) 247 1
2. North Dakota (3) 210 2
3. Denver 192 3
4. Minnesota 156 7
(tie) Wisconsin 156 6
6. St. Cloud State 133 t4
7. Minnesota State 124 t4
8. Minnesota-Duluth 78 8
9. Michigan Tech 51 9
10. Alaska Anchorage 32 10

Here are the results of the WCHA Coaches poll.

1. Colorado College (8) 78
2. UND (2) 67
3. Denver 62
4. (tie) Minnesota 53
4. (tie) Wisconsin 53
6. St. Cloud State 48
7. MSU-Mankato 38
8. Minn.-Duluth 24
9. Michigan Tech 14
10. Anchorage 13

If you look at these two polls you will see that they shook out the EXACT same way, I would have never expected that in a 100 years. I mean Of course C.C. is the pick to repeat as the leauge champion, but you could get a lot of different variations from 2-10, well 2-9 at least.

I also think the only thing that is certain this season; is that there will be a lot of uncertainty in the WCHA this season. After the first place C.C. Tigers I think any of the teams in the 2-7 position could realistically finish in the top five.

It seems to be a yearly occurrence and this year is no different, there are going to be a few teams in the WCHA breaking in a high number of freshman. The Minnesota Golden Gophers has 12 freshmen on this season’s roster. While I have heard a few Gopher fans pointing to last season's Michigan team as an example of how Minnesota might/could finish, (for the record the Michigan Wolverines had 11 freshman on their team last season) that being said, I really believe last years Wolverine team was an enigma and they finished the regular season relatively unscathed even with a high number of freshman. Realistically the season could have finished a whole lot differently for the Wolverines. Hockey is a game of breaks; a couple of bad break here and a couple of bad moves here could have landed the Wolverines lower in the CCHA standings. That also doesn't mean I think the Gophers are going to suck. The Gophers have a lot of question marks like the many of the other 9 teams in the league not named the Tigers.

Some of the Pressing issues

Some of the other issues that are going to surface are: 1.) How are DU and UND going to fare with their untested goaltenders? 2.) Who is going to score for MTU and UMD? 3.) Can UAA win more the 6 games? 4.) Will UMN have more scoring punch than last season?

WCHA fans are soon going to find out how the regular season shakes out. This is why they play the games. Preseason Polls/rankings mean nothing after the drop of the puck of the first game. In fact preseason rankings could probably serve a better purpose as bird cage liner or toilet paper for your out house behind the hunting shack. Being the defending WCHA league champion, means nothing once the regular season begins, teams are going to be coming after the C.C. Tigers hard. With that being said, it is my pleasure to say that the Tigers now officially have the target on their back.