By: Ryan Fallon
BOSTON – The college hockey season ended five months ago at the TD Garden. Today, a new one began in the same place. The rink on Causeway Street played host to Hockey East’s annual media day, with the first games now just a few short weeks away. We’ll have additional coverage coming in the next few days, but for now here’s a snippet of what took place.
The day kicked off with the release of the coaches poll. Boston College was picked to finish first in the conference, receiving seven first-place votes.Northeastern was picked to finish fifth. Full results:
1) Boston College (7)
2) Boston University (3)
3) Providence College (2)
4) UMass Lowell
5) Northeastern
6) New Hampshire
7) Notre Dame
8) Vermont
9) Connecticut
10) Maine
11) Merrimack
12) Massachusetts
Other news and notes:
Hockey East announced a television partnership with American Sports Network. The two-year deal will start with fourteen broadcasts this season, including Northeastern at Notre Dame on November 12th and Northeastern at Massachusetts on February 12th. Hockey East Commissioner Joe Bertagna suggested that further details on this year’s television packages would be coming soon.
Nancy Marrapese-Burrell, recently retired from the Boston Globe, was named the 2015 winner of the Joe Concannon Media Award. She is the first woman to win the award.
Scott McLaughlin of WEEI reported that Boston College goaltender Thatcher Demko may miss the start of the season. Similarly, Conor Ryan of SB Nation reported that Boston University captain Matt Grzelcyk is still recovering from knee surgery and will likely miss some time as well.
Jerry York said Thatcher Demko may not be ready for the start of the season. Had surgery on both hips in the offseason.
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin9) September 21, 2015
"No real set timetable" for BU captain Matt Grzelcyk's return following knee surgery: http://t.co/wdiypkYvcQ pic.twitter.com/kedATrz2yW
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) September 21, 2015
Check back later this week for more from Hockey East Media Day.