So this first Polls & Awards post of the season can pretty much be titled “Why Polls Are Stupid”.  Last week UMass had enough votes in the USCHO poll to be de facto 28th and ahead of fellow Hockey East teams Northeastern and Providence.  In this week’s poll UMass received zero votes, no doubt because of their lackluster performance this past weekend against…er…UMass.  Providence and Northeastern played as many real games as UMass this past week, zero, yet still received votes.  Just another lesson that the polls are only as valuable as the people that are chosen to vote in them.

We have a split poll this week as Boston College is #1 for USCHO but Minnesota is tops in the USA Hockey/USA Today poll.

All Black Bears and Warriors in this week’s Hockey East awards, since they’re the only ones who played.

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UMass is flip-flopping a home and home with Providence in January.  The teams will play at the Mullins on Friday, January 11th and then at Schneider the next night.

New England Hockey Journal has their preview of Hockey East.  They also have this in-depth feature on Jerry York, claiming he’s the best coach in college hockey.  Yes, yes he is.

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Starting to wrap-up preview mode here at FTT.  Tomorrow I’ll unveil my pick for Newcomer of the Year, Wednesday will be the annual way too long season preview for the Minutemen, and then Thursday will take a look at Friday’s opener against the UConn Huskies.