One of the first things you notice at the World Arena is the different banners — those for Miami University and Western Michigan University — hanging from the rafters. While the rest of the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference, which officially made its debut in early October after more than two years of preparation and anticipation, are old familiar opponents from the WCHA, an aura of change permeates the air.

Colorado College and the University of Minnesota Duluth, two of the NCHC’s founding members back in July 2011, officially launched league play in a nationally televised doubleheader on Oct. 18 of this year. It marked the beginning of a new era, not only for the Tigers, but also for all of college hockey.

Still, the annual goals for CC remain the same — beat the University of Denver as often as possible, earn home ice for the opening round of the playoffs, and ultimately remain positioned for one of 16 bids to the NCAA tournament.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” Scott Owens ’79 said prior to his 15th season as head coach. “It’s a whole new set of circumstances.”

Whether in reference to the new league or the personnel on his team, that assessment applies across the board. Of the 133 goals Colorado College scored while en route to and in the WCHA Final Five championship game last campaign, more than half came off the sticks of seniors who graduated in May. Replacing that firepower obviously is a concern.

But, with the likes of Alexander Krushelnyski ’14, Archie Skalbeck ’14, Charlie Taft ’15, Cody Bradley ’16, and Hunter Fejes ’16 returning at the forward position, CC has the potential to do it. Solid between the pipes, where highly touted freshman Tyler Marble ’17 joins veterans Josh Thorimbert ’14 and Courtney Lockwood ’15 in a battle for playing time, the Tigers also expected to boast one of their biggest and most talented defensive corps ever.

Headlining the group, which also features senior captain Eamonn McDermott ’14, are four blue-line specialists — juniors Aaron Harstad ’15 (6-2, 208) and Peter Stoykewych ’15 (6-3, 304), along with freshmen Gustav Olofsson ’17 (6-2, 190) and Jaccob Slavin ’17 (6-3, 195) — who have been selected in the National Hockey League draft.

The regular-season schedule includes 10 non-conference games against formidable opponents such as Air Force, New Hampshire, Providence College, and Wisconsin, in addition to a 24-game NCHC slate with four dates apiece vs. Denver, Nebraska Omaha, St. Cloud State, and Western Michigan. The Tigers play Miami (at home) and North Dakota (on the road) only twice each.

“It’s going to be tough,” said Owens. “There’s going to be all kinds of discussions publicly as to if we should do this, if it’s too tough of a schedule or if we’re good enough on certain weekends. But it doesn’t matter, because we are one of the premier programs in the nation and we’re doing it.”

A total of four CC games in 2013-14 were scheduled for national telecasts on CBS Sports Network, and another on NBC Sports Network, with several others slated to air regionally or locally on the likes of Altitude Sports, Root Sports and KRDO-TV 13, sister station of Colorado College’s new broadcast partner – KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM.