The curse of the Presidents Trophy continues
The Florida Panthers won the Presidents' Trophy this regular season as the team with the most points, finishing with a record of 58-18-6 for a total of 122 points. They also finished with the most goals for in a single season during the salary cap era, scoring 337 times. However, their is one thing they were unable to do, and that is win a game in the second round against the Tampa Bay Lightning. With the series loss, the curse of the Presidents' Trophy continues.
Over the last ten years, the President Trophy winners have only advanced past the second round of the playoffs twice. Additionally, we have not seen a President Trophy winner win a Stanley Cup since the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks.
So why do we regularly see the Presidents' Trophy winning team struggle to find playoff success? The truth is, their is likely a number of reasons. One reason could be that what earns positive results in the regular season, does not always translate to playoff success. For example, this seasons Florida Panthers had no issues scoring goals during the regular season. But as we see every year, the playoffs are played much tighter with less open ice. A team like Florida, who rely heavily on scoring, do not have as much room to generate offense. Tampa Bay only allowed three goals against in the entire series verses the Panthers. A team has only scored three goals or less in a playoff series fifteen other times in NHL history.
And while the Panthers were able to achieve their first playoff series win since 1996, they were unable to end the curse of the Presidents' Trophy.
| POLL | ||
MAI 24 | 565 ANSWERS The curse of the Presidents Trophy continues Does the Florida sweep make you feel any better | ||
| Yes | 147 | 26 % |
| A little, but we still lost | 220 | 38.9 % |
| No, means nothing to me | 198 | 35 % |
| List of polls | ||
