I’m not normally one to purchase into curses in sports activities. However, the one curse that’s 100% certifiably true is the NHL’s Presidents’ Trophy Curse.
For the unaware, there’s a phenomenon in skilled hockey the place the staff that wins the Presidents’ Trophy, awarded annually to the staff with essentially the most regular-season wins, normally doesn’t win the Stanley Cup.
Moreover, many groups have been utterly uncovered in franchise-altering, embarrassing fashions within the first spherical.
With one other potential first-round upset on the horizon, with this 12 months’s trophy winner, the Winnipeg Jets, it’s value revisiting the three worst beats for the Presidents’ Trophy groups.
1. 2022-23 Boston Bruins
The latest unhealthy beat for a Presidents’ Trophy staff simply so occurs to be one of many worst playoff collapses in sports activities historical past.
The 2023 Boston Bruins amassed essentially the most ever common season wins and factors, along with 5 different league information, together with most ever street wins in a season and longest home-winning streak to start out a season.
File books most likely don’t go far sufficient to point out what the Bruins managed to do this 12 months, with a core that had been round since their final Stanley Cup win a decade earlier.
Going into the 2023 playoffs, Boston was a cautious favourite to win the Stanley Cup.
Matched up towards the Florida Panthers within the first spherical, a staff that had received the Presidents’ Trophy the 12 months prior and was eradicated within the second spherical, the Bruins jumped out to a 3-1 collection lead.
They then misplaced in extra time at dwelling in a closeout Recreation 5 and had been defeated 7-5 in Recreation 6 in Florida. In Recreation 7, the Bruins had a 3-2 lead going into the sport’s remaining minute, surrendered a tying objective whereas the Panthers’ goalie had been pulled, after which gave up an OT winner.
All of these info, the winningest season in NHL historical past, a 3-1 collection lead, and a 3-2 lead within the remaining minute of Recreation 7, make this the worst ever loss for a Presidents’ Trophy staff. It’s onerous to think about an ideal storm of choking on that degree ever taking place once more.
Additionally, with their loss in 2023, the Bruins saved the streak going for all 4 main American skilled sports activities, the place the staff that received essentially the most regular-season video games has by no means received the championship.
2. 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning
Boston did the Tampa Bay Lightning an actual strong as a result of this loss doesn’t get introduced up anymore as Exhibit A for Presidents’ Trophy Curses. However on the time, it was one of many largest playoff embarrassments ever in skilled sports activities.
In 2019, Tampa tied the earlier file of 62 regular-season wins held by the 1996 Detroit Pink Wings — a staff that, additionally, didn’t win the championship.
The Lightning boasted a Hart winner in Nikita Kucherov and a Vezina Trophy winner in Andrei Vasilevsky. Feels like a Stanley Cup profitable components, proper? The league’s greatest participant and its greatest goalie.
Enter the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Columbus had a reasonably profitable 47-win season after loading up on the commerce deadline. They landed the East’s remaining playoff spot that 12 months by scoring on the New York Rangers within the remaining minute of a shootout.
The Blue Jackets would sweep the record-tying Tampa in fairly overwhelming trend. The closest sport was a 4-3 victory in Recreation 1, however aside from that, Columbus received each different sport by a number of targets, placing up a landing in Recreation 4.
The Lightning grew to become the primary Presidents’ Trophy winner to get swept within the first spherical.
And, so as to add slightly postscript to this story, whereas Tampa did win back-to-back Stanley Cups within the following seasons, they each got here throughout Covid-19-altered seasons. In 2020, they received in an empty area in Edmonton, and in 2021, they received in a shortened season.
3. 1990-91 Chicago Blackhawks
The ‘91 Blackhawks are the originators of the first-round Presidents’ Trophy loss.
They had been solely the sixth staff awarded the Trophy after its inception within the 1985-86 season and the primary to lose in Spherical 1.
This season was the very best of the comparatively short-lived Chris Chelios period and has been known as the very best Blackhawks staff by no means to win the Stanley Cup.
Along with Chelios, the Blackhawks had Corridor of Fame goalie Ed Belfour, who received each the Vezina and Calder Trophies that season.
Chicago misplaced in six video games within the opening spherical to the Minnesota North Stars — the religious successor to the Minnesota Wild and the literal successor to the Dallas Stars. In contrast to the primary two collection losses on this checklist, Minnesota was not a sneaky good regular-season staff. As an alternative, they had been straight up unhealthy.
The North Stars had a beneath .500 file, 27-39-14, and, in accordance with Hockey Reference, had a -0.10 rating on their easy score system, in distinction to the Blackhawks’ 0.85 easy score.
Minnesota received Recreation 1 in extra time, then misplaced the subsequent two, earlier than closing out the collection with three straight wins, together with a 6-0 Recreation 5 shutout victory in Chicago Stadium.
