CSTV's Hobey Baker Poll

CSTV is having 7 of their top hockey gurus(your noble blogger, sadly not included) vote each week for their Hobey Baker Poll.

Brian Elliott netted 5 of the 7 first place votes, but was tied with Colorado College's Brett Sterling for the lead with 29 points, since someone inexplicably left Elliott off their ballot. Ryan Potulny is third with 23 points, as he seems to be the consensus third place pick. Nobody else got more than 4 points.

One interesting note is that the only votes for players out East were a fourth place vote and a fifth place vote for Reid Cashman, and two fifth place pity votes for Chris Collins.

The poll overall looks pretty good. I'm glad I don't have to decide between Elliott and Sterling today. Both are so incredibly good and it's tough to compare between positions. I guess I'm not as convinced about Potulny being third. His numbers look good to be sure, but the majority of that has come on the powerplay. Not only are 10 of his 18 goals on the powerplay, but 8 of his 13 assists also came with a powerplay. That doesn't discredit his impressive stats, but I'm not sure a powerplay specialist deserves the award.

It's good to see that Jeff Jakaitis is getting some recognition for his outstanding season. But it's also disappointing to see the nation's leading scorer, Scott Parse not getting as much respect. I said earlier this week that I didn't think Parse was the best player in the country, but he should be in the top 5. There's really no logic for putting Alex Foster or Chris Collins ahead of him.