Re: 2009-2010 USCHO Pre Season poll.
josh carey
Are u kidding me you put Stout at 7 wow no love st norbet loses like 6 guys becuase they were dumb and shot rabbits man no love. We also have one of the best lines in DIII. You must live on the east coast.
I'm not sure whether I'm more amazed that I agree with what I think you may be trying to say or that it read like it did even after you took the time to edit.
I try not to comment too much on teams I don't know a ton about, so I usually keep it to the west. I'll be interested to see how the new scheduling format in the NCHA impacts their rankings. Impressive W-L records will be hard to maintain with 4 NCHA games taking the place of 2 nearly automatic wins against Lake Forest and 2 MIAC interlock games removed that tended to largely go the way of the NCHA. I have a feeling rankings will take this into account and it will have little impact and we know it will help SOS for the NCAAs.
I think Stout is about right in the 3 or 4 range. It isn't by a huge margin, but they do have the best returning team in the NCHA and I've heard they seem to like their new goalie.
I'd probably bump Superior down to 6 or 7. I know Stauber has collected goalies this season like John Gruden collects QBs, but despite other solid talent returning I'm not sure I can put them up too high without knowing if at least one of those goalies is any good. The also lost quite a few solid senior forwards, including one very good one in Huck who I thought was the heart and soul of that team.
St. Norbert probably belongs somewhere around 10 like they are. Their issues have been alluded to by some, which I won't go into. The only non-graduation loss they'll really feel will be Gale. My bigger concern is health. They don't have the depth to handle a ton of injuries and it sounds like there are some early concerns. I think the goalie tandem will be better. I'm not predicting elite, but better. Last season those guys had the extremely difficult task of replacing a D3 all-time great made more challenging by the fact that both sat on the bench most of the prior season.
Gustavus Adolphus seems low at initial glance based on returning talent, but I'd probably put them somewhere in the 9-11 range about where they are. To be honest it wouldn't surpise me if they end up lower when it is all said and done. They may have top 5 returning talent. However, those who learn from history have likely noticed St. Thomas is the only MIAC team over the last 10 years who has shown any consistent staying power. We've seen other MIAC teams have a good season and then when drop back to the middle of the pack in their conference even when it looked like they'd be primed for a big run the following season.
As far as the top 15, I'd probably sneak Stevens Point right in near the bottom in place of St. Scholastica. I like some of their young talent with a potential POTY candidate in Erstad.
St. Scholastica I'd bump a few spots out of the top 15. They lost quite a few seniors including 3 of their top 4 scorers and a good senior goalie. I'm not sure they won't take a step down after a very good year.
I don't see anybody else out west who deserves serious consideration in the top 15.
At least I got 
