Watching the series between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Tampa Bay Lightning brings back memories of the 2014-15 New York Rangers. That was the season the Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy with the best record in the NHL only to lose in the Conference Finals.
Now, it’s too early to say that the Lightning are going to emulate the New York Rangers and fail in their mission to win the Stanley Cup. They are only down 2-0, losing their first two games at home. Don’t forget, Columbus did the exact same thing to Washington last season, only to drop four in a row to the eventual Stanley Cup champions. But it does raise the issue of the President’s Trophy and how it has become the kiss of death for Stanley Cup hopefuls
In 2014-15, the Rangers, fresh off their trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, finished with 113 points, three points more than runner-up Montreal. The Rangers finished with a record of 53-22-7, leading the league in wins, ROW and goal differential (plus 60).
We all know what happened when the playoffs began. In the first round the Rangers demolished the Penguins in five games and came back from a 3-1 deficit to the Capitals in the second round to win game seven on Derek Stepan‘s overtime goal. They took the Tampa Bay Lightning to seven games in the Conference Finals, but lost 2-0 at Madison Square Garden.
That season was the second straight when the Presidents’ Trophy winning team didn’t win the Cup. That streak is now five years and the Lightning are threatening to make it six.
The history of the jinx
The President’s Trophy has been awarded 32 times. The team that won the trophy has gone on to win the Stanley Cup only eight times. At first, the best team in the league won six times in 17 years, a pretty decent percentage. In the 15 years since 2001-02, the Presidents’ Trophy winning team has won the Cup twice. Now that is a jinx.
The Rangers are one for three. They won the Trophy in 1992, but lost to the Penguins in the Division Finals. They accomplished the feat in 1994 when everything the Rangers did went right. Then, there was 2015.
What is pretty amazing is that a lot of Presidents’ Trophy winner don’t even make it to the Finals. Only three Trophy teams got the Finals and lost, meaning that in 32 seasons, the top team in the league made it to the Finals only 11 times.
The Rangers are one of three teams to win three Presidents’ Trophies. Detroit leads with six wins, but they won the Cup only one of those seasons. The Washington Capitals were the top team three times and didn’t win the Stanley Cup in any of those seasons.
Just hockey?
It’s not just hockey where this happens. In Major League Baseball, there have been 24 seasons since the wild card system was adopted in 1995. Only five times has the team with the best record in baseball gone on to win the World Series.
In the National Football League, in the last fifteen years, the team with the best record in the regular season has gone on to win the Superbowl four times. In eight of the 15 years the top team made it to the big game. New Yorkers still revel in the 2008 Superbowl when the New England Patriots and their perfect 18-0 record were upended by the Giants, who had a 10-6 regular season record.
A tall order
Tampa and Columbus resume their war on Sunday. Will the Lightning be able to turn their game around and make this a series? Ex-Rangers Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi and J.T. Miller know the disappointment of the Presidents’ Trophy jinx and will do everything they can to reverse it.
It also proves that anything can happen in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, you just have to be in the post-season for the magic to begin. Case in point, the 2013-14 New York Rangers finished with the 12th best record in the NHL with 21 points fewer than the Boston Bruins (Presidents’ Trophy winners). Their 96 points were three more than the last wild card team. And we all know what happened that year.