The Caps celebrate beating the Rangers on Sunday. (Caps Outsider)
If the 2015-2016 National Hockey League season ended today, the Caps would have 71 points with their 5-2 victory over the Rangers at Verizon Center Sunday — the best record in the NHL. Naturally, being the ‘best’ would indicate a good thing. With that in mind, in 1986, the NHL’s Board of Governors decided that it was necessary to honor the team with the best record or the most points during the regular season. Prior to that time, the team with the most points merely got to hang a banner in their arena that read ‘NHL League Champions’. That’s when the President’s Trophy was born. Aside from the title itself, the team on top is given home-ice advantage in the Stanley Cup finals, if they get that far. Sounds great, right? Not so fast.
Accumulating the most points in a regular season is no indication of who will win the coveted Stanley Cup. In fact, history dictates quite the opposite. The President’s Trophy has been awarded 28 times in 29 seasons, due the lockout in 2004-5. Since its inception, only eight of the recipients have won the Stanley Cup. That’s only about 29%.
Fans remember clearly the 2009-10 season when the Caps were awarded the President’s Trophy for the first time in franchise history. It had been a promising season. With their new captain, Alex Ovechkin, leading the pack, the Caps scored 313 goals with seven players reaching the 20-goal mark. They also scored more power play goals than any other team with 79, and they thrilled fans by winning 14 straight games from Jan 13 to Feb. 7, 2010, all orchestrated by former coach Bruce Boudreau. The scene was set for the Stanley Cup. After all, the Caps were the Southeast Division Champions, the Eastern Conference Champions and they had received the President’s Trophy. But it wasn’t meant to be as hopeful fans watched in disbelief as their beloved Caps lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs.
After that devastating blow in 2010, the Caps have gone through a lot of changes. They have had four different coaches and a new general manager. They have made strategic trades that have beefed-up both their defense and their fire power. And they are on track to receive the President’s Trophy once again. But do fans really want or care about that?
Last season, the Rangers received the President’s Trophy. The Tampa Bay Lightning doused their Stanley Cup dreams in the conference finals, but not before the Rangers did their dirty work and eliminated the Caps in the conference semifinals. The point is the Rangers didn’t win the Stanley Cup, but they always have the President’s Trophy to ease their disappointment. Sure.
So, is the President’s Trophy an honor? Of course. Is it a curse, a jinx, a hex, a bad omen? At 29%, you decide. It’s ok, Caps, to lose a game once in a while or even totally lay an egg like Saturday in the loss against Buffalo. The mission is not to be awarded the President’s Trophy. The Stanley Cup is the ultimate goal.
Let’s Go Caps!
