Pre-Season ECAC Picks (UPDATED)

Yesterday, The College Hockey Blog posted an ECAC preview with picks for the All-Conference team. Just two days prior to that I sent in my picks to the ECAC Hockey Writers and Broadcasters Association where I picked the All-Conference team and the pre-season rankings for all 12 teams. In some aspects I agree with TCHB and in others I don't.

I HAVE UPDATED MY RANKINGS DUE TO THE DEPARTURE OF BRANDON PIRRI FROM RPI

Here are my picks:

1. Yale --> 2009-10 Regular Season champs; Bring back Little, O'Neill, and Kearney; one of their junior goaltenders will step up

2. Cornell --> It will be the same old Big Red team: defense and special teams; freshman goaltender Andy Iles has had good reviews

3. Dartmouth --> Will be surprise team of 2010-11; had strong end of last season; look for Fleming and Estoclet to have big seasons

4. Union --> Lose a lot of offense in 'Super' Mario and Wally, but bring back very strong defensive corps and good forwards that went to the ECAC Final Four; return six players who had at least 18 points last season and three players who had at least 10 goals in 2009-2010

5. Colgate --> Even though the lose David McIntyre to graduation offesne should not be a problem since they still return Austin Smith (16-25-41), Brian Day (21-15-36), Francois Brisebois (15-10-25), and Robbie Bourdon (8-15-23); but I'm still not too impressed by the Raiders

6. Brown --> Shocked the ECAC by making the ECAC Final Four last season and should build off that success; play a tough brand of hockey which was seen in the first round of the playoffs against RPI

7. RPI --> Losing D'Amigo really hurt but at least they still have Pirri... oh wait, he's gone to; Polacek is basically all by himself to carry the offense as the #2 returning scorer is Alex Angers-Goulet (5-13-18) and no returning player had more than nine goals last season; but I believe in Coach Appert enough where I think they'll get a first round home playoff series and win it

8. Princeton --> Lose Bartlett and Magnowski on offense; goaltending is a question mark; but bring back some promising forwards and are traditionally a strong team

9. St. Lawrence --> Lose their top two scorers in McKenzie and Vermeulen; who ever ends up in between the pipes will have very little experience

10. Quinnipiac --> Lose top four scorers; defense is always a weakness and I've never liked their brand of hockey

11. Harvard --> Had the lowest goals per game average of any ECAC team and are losing top scorer Louis Leblanc to the Montreal Canadiens; but Ted Donato will keep them out of the basement

12. Clarkson --> Last season was miserable; lose top scorer Matt Beca; I think their goaltender Paul Karpowich is brutal (as seen when he came to Messa Rink last season)

F Broc Little, Yale
F Adam Estoclet, Dartmouth
F Brian Day, Colgate
D Nick D'Agostino, Cornell
D George Hughes, St. Lawrence
G Keith Kinkaid, Union

Other players to keep an eye on: F Denny Kearney (Yale), F Brian O'Neill (Yale), F Chase Polacek (RPI), G Allen York (RPI), D Greg Coburn (Union), F Adam Presizniuk (Union), F Scott Fleming (Dartmouth), D Evan Stephens (Dartmouth), F Austin Smith (Colgate), G Dan Clarke (Quinnipiac), D Mark Borowiecki (Clarkson), F Brandon DiFazio (Clarkson), G Andy Iles (Cornell), D Mike Devin (Cornell), F Joe Devin (Cornell), F Jack Mclellan (Brown), F Michael Biega (Harvard), F Scott Zurvenski (Quinnipiac), D Taylor Fedun (Princeton), F Aaron Bogosian (St. Lawrence), D Pete Child (St. Lawrence)

So, here are the changes I've made:

- Colgate and RPI flipped positions. Colgate moves up to 5th, while RPI slides down to 7th. Colgate has a good offense, but will need to play good two-way hockey to get into the top 4. RPI's offense will rely heavily on Polacek, but he will definitely be marked by the opposition's best defender. The game plan will definitely be to hit him hard, and hit him often. Luckily for Polacek, many of the other forwards are seniors (Brutlag, Helfrich, Halpern), and I believe they will pick up some of the slack.

- I dropped Chase Polacek from the All-Conference team and replaced him with Brian Day. Without Pirri or D'Amigo on his side it will be very hard for Polacek to put up numbers like he did last season. But, he is a great player and I predict he will be on the Second Team All-Conference. I also predict that Day will have a huge year. He will be in his senior year, which will provide some motivation. Also, he's surrounded by other very good forwards like Austin Smith and Francois Brisebois. A line of Smith-Day-Brisebois could be the best in the ECAC. It wouldn't surprise me though if Smith had a huge year and made First Team All-Conference.