The Dartmouth men's hockey team has received a pair of top-10 national preseason rankings. The Big Green was picked to finish seventh by the coaches of the ECAC Hockey League and sixth by the media at the preseason media day held Monday.
The top four spots were identical in both polls, with last year's regular season runner-up Clarkson first, last year's regular season champion St. Lawrence second, Quinnipiac third and Cornell fourth. The coaches ranked Harvard fifth, Colgate sixth, and Dartmouth seventh, while the media had Colgate finishing fifth, and Dartmouth finishing sixth.
This year's ranking is slightly lower than last year's, when the Big Green was picked to finish fourth by the coaches and third by the media. The squad finished last regular season in third place going 18-12-3, 12-7-3 in the ECACHL, winning the Ivy League championship in the process.
Two years ago, when the men's team won the Cleary Cup, awarded to the ECACHL regular season champion, for the first time, it was ranked second by the coaches during preseason and third by the media.
Past results aside, members of this year's team have said they do not give much weight to these preseason polls.
"The rankings don't mean anything at all to our team," goalie Mike Devine '08 said. "I didn't even know that rankings were out yet, so there's not too much emphasis on it."
Captain Nick Johnson '08 echoed similar sentiments and pointed out the negative attention that can go along with a high ranking.
"I remember my freshman year, in one poll, we were ranked third nationally and I think it put a lot of unwanted pressure on the team," Johnson said. "This year we're only supposed to be average but I know we'll have a good, competitive team [that] can beat anyone."
This poll could certainly be used as bulletin board fodder to help motivate the team but Johnson thinks it's unnecessary at the moment.
"I'm really happy with the work ethic and seriousness everyone on the team is exhibiting," Johnson said. "Everyone seems driven to be the best that he can be."
"Our motivation to win comes from the desire to represent the school well," Rob Pritchard '09 said. "There are more than a hundred years of pride and tradition associated with Dartmouth hockey."
At the moment the team is going through captain's practices, as the team cannot practice with the coach until official preseason, which starts at the beginning of October.
"We've been on the ice basically since we got back to campus," Devine said. "A lot of guys came up early to get some extra training and skating in so it's been going very well."
Johnson feels that the preseason is going well and in particular, that the freshmen have been integrating into the team well.
"So far I've been really impressed with the freshman class," Johnson said. "Every freshman has stood out in one way or another over the last few weeks and they all seem like intelligent players, who should be able to adapt to the college game quickly."
This year's recruiting class consists of nine incoming freshmen. Given that freshmen make up a third of the team, some of them will certainly be expected to contribute in big ways this year.
Even after weathering the graduation of some key players and the early departure of David Jones '08, who left after last season to pursue a career in the Colorado Avalanche organization, the team is setting their goals high.
"Our team goal this season is to win a national championship," Johnson said. "I feel like we have enough outstanding players to beat anyone in the country and the past three years we've been so close to making the tournament but haven't quite made that leap."
