A year after going 10-21-3, the men’s hockey team was delivered their preseason grade from Hockey East league coaches on Tuesday, finishing eighth out of nine teams in the season-opening poll.

With 23 points, the Huskies edged out last-place Merrimack College for the second-to-last slot by a single point. Boston College earned the top honors, garnering 72 points with a unanimous eight first-place votes (teams can’t vote for themselves). It was the fourth time in the last six season that the Eagles have been chosen as the preseason team to beat by coaches. For Merrimack, 2003 marks the fourth time in five years that the Warriors have been relegated to last place in the initial poll.

NU senior Brian Tudrick isn’t fazed by the survey, though.

“That’s alright, I’m not going to think about it too much,” he said. “It’ll give us a little fire in our belly, but none of the guys are going to be like ‘Oh, we’re picked eighth, we’re going to finish eighth. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Rounding out the rest of the poll were New Hampshire (63 points), Boston University (58), Maine (50), UMass-Amherst (45), Providence (37) and UMass-Lowell (26).

Also, uscho.com released its national poll this week, with the University of Minnesota taking the top honor with 25 of 27 first-place ballots. BC is third in the nation with two-first place votes, while New Hampshire (no. 4) Boston University (6), Harvard University (7) and Maine (12) were also in the top 15 national poll.

The Huskies annual Red/Black Scrimmage is set for Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena.