Providence. Union. Yale. Minnesota-Duluth.
Those are four of the last five NCAA hockey champions, and they all have some things in common. For each, the title was the first for the school, and not a single one was ranked first overall in the preseason polls for their trophy-raising seasons.
College hockey is not played in a vaccuum, so predicting the outcome of a six-league, 59-team season is nearly impossible, and the 2015-16 season is shaping up to be just as volatile. There's no way to know what will happen — which players will emerge, which teams will fall victim to injuries or mishaps, or just how the puck will bounce when the game is on the line — but that doesn't stop us from giving it a shot.