Many were somewhat taken aback when Boston College was tabbed to finish 3rd in the Hockey East media poll, with a number of close observers (myself included) thinking this was a pretty high bar for a team that lost so much in the offseason.
That expectation level was nothing compared to USCHO pollsters, who dropped their preseason national rankings and picked BC as the #5-ranked team nationally going in to the season. (http://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-i-mens-poll/)
BC was ranked #2 among Hockey East teams, behind #4 BU. Notre Dame, Lowell and Providence were also tabbed as top ten teams.
The college hockey polls are a fairly useless exercise, especially given the lack of information or widespread coverage necessary to truly compare 60 teams against one another, but this benchmark serves as a reminder that it doesn't matter how young or unheralded a team is - if they have Boston College written across their chest, the national expectation is that they will contend.