The Boston Bruins won their fourth Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the best record. They put up a 65-12-5 mark with 135 points while rewriting the NHL record book for wins and points earned in a single season. Historically, teams who beat up on the competition in the regular season and earn the President’s Trophy fail to duplicate the process in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Since being introduced as an award during the 1985-86 season, only eight teams have captured the Presidents’ Trophy and the Stanley Cup in the same season, with the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks the last team to accomplish the feat.
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During the last 10 years, there hasn’t been a single team to advance past the second round, leaving many fans in Beantown worried that the Bruins are on a crash course with a predetermined destiny. As the greatest statistical team of all time, what must the Bruins do differently to avoid the so-called “curse” of the President’s Trophy?
Boston Bruins must avoid complacency
In 2018, the Tampa Bay Lightning became only the third team in NHL history to win over 60 games, finishing the campaign with 62. This set up a first-round playoff series with the underdog Columbus Blue Jackets (47 wins). Despite winning the season series 3-0 and outscoring Columbus 17-3, the Lightning was swept in four games in an embarrassing series for the franchise, outgunned 19-8 on the scoreboard.
Interestingly, the captain of the Blue Jackets that year was Nick Foligno. He’s now a member of the Bruins, after joining the club as a free agent in 2021. Although Boston is playing against the Florida Panthers in this year’s first round, they have to go into the series with a killer instinct because the Panthers were last year’s Presidents’ Trophy winners and didn’t advance beyond the second round.
Now as a wildcard team, they have nothing to lose and know the pressure will be on the Bruins to come out hungry and suffocate the Panthers into submission. Potentially, they will win the series with highlight-reel goals from David Pastrnak (61 goals) and Jake DeBrusk (27 goals), while captain Patrice Bergeron shuts down Florida snipers like Mathew Tkachuk (40 goals) and Carter Verhaeghe (42 goals).
Ultimately, this opening-round series will be physical since these two teams combined for 3,680 hits in the regular season. However, the deciding factor will be goaltending and whether or not Linus Ullmark can prove his record-setting 40-win campaign was no fluke.
Although the Panthers have yet to name their starter, Alex Lyon looks like the main guy, playing all the important games down the stretch. Even though each starter is inexperienced with playoff hockey at this stage of their careers, their ability to steal games will be the sole reason their team advances.
If the Bruins are serious about winning the opening round and moving closer to the Stanley Cup, they can not take the Panthers lightly since they already account for two of their 12 losses this year.
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Bruins’ veteran leadership could be a decisive factor
The last team to win the President’s Trophy and lose in the Stanley Cup Final were the 2010-11 Vancouver Canucks, shut out on home ice in Game 7 by the Boston Bruins, who still have three members from that lineup on the roster this year.
Since 2000, only five winners have made it to the Final, with the aforementioned Canucks the only team to make it and lose at the final buzzer. Initially, the Colorado Avalanche (2001), Detroit Red Wings (2002 & 2008), and Blackhawks (2013) hoisted the Stanley Cup, celebrating a sweep as the league’s best team in the regular season and playoffs.
When we look back at those lineups, there is an abundance of players who eventually made their way into the Hockey Hall of Fame, including iconic names like Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg, Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidström, and Dominic Hasek. Even though a handful of players from the 2013 Blackhawks are still playing, two of them, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, will eventually be first-ballot HOFers when they retire.
Currently, Patrice Bergeron is the leader of the Boston Bruins, who assumed the captaincy from Zdeno Chara and has been in the Spoked B his entire career. Historically, he’s been partnered with Brad Marchand, a routine 30-goal scorer, who has a magical connection with Pastrnak on the power play.
As a group, the Bruins recently won this award three years ago and didn’t advance past the second round, losing to the Lightning in the 2019-20 playoffs. However, this current Boston lineup is built for the pressures of the postseason and will rely heavily on the core players who are still with the team, suffering losses in the 2013 and 2019 Stanley Cup Finals.
Boston Bruins will face adversity on the road to Stanley Cup Final
Every team has to face adversity to find success, and even though the Bruins strolled through the regular season, they are on a collision course with the winner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Lightning first-round series. Historically, there is a lot of bad blood between all three franchises, so no matter who makes it out of the first round, the second round will be even messier.
Then, whoever advances to the Eastern Conference Final, will most likely have a date with the Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, or the New York Islanders. By then, bodies will be bruised and sore, but the experience of still playing hockey in late May and early June motivates players to dive in front of 100 mph slap shots.
Winning the Presidents’ Trophy is an outstanding achievement for any franchise since only 18 clubs have won it since 1985. However, it is not the award little kids dream of when playing street hockey in their front yard. Even though it guarantees home-ice advantage through the entire Stanley Cup playoffs, most teams have it locked up before the end of March and ease up on certain aspects of their game as the regular season winds down.
Although the trophy has a stigma attached to it, the Bruins are poised to end the “curse” since they never stopped pressing down the stretch on their pursuit of several historical records. Fate may not be on their side, but it will be up to the players in the dressing room to carve out their destiny.
Ultimately, the Boston Bruins can become the ninth team to win the Presidents’ Trophy and Stanley Cup, capping off what could be deemed the most incredible season in professional hockey history.