Bruins become the latest Presidents' Trophy winners to fall well short of a Cup
BOSTON -- An incredible season for the Bruins is over well short of the team's goal to lift the Stanley Cup, with Boston collapsing in the first round against the eight-seeded Florida Panthers. Boston's postseason unravelling was completed Sunday night with a Game 7 overtime loss at TD Garden.
The Bruins are just the latest in a long string of Presidents' Trophy winners to lose long before the Cup even entered a building.
While curses aren't real, there is something going on with the Presidents' Trophy, which is awarded to the team with the most points in the regular season. The Bruins easily claimed that honor during their historic regular season, in which they set new NHL records for wins and points.
Those records mean very little Monday morning, as the Bruins couldn't even get out of the first round against the Panthers, a team that had 43 fewer points than Boston in the regular season and barely made the playoffs. But the Bruins couldn't overcome the pressure they carried into the postseason after such an epic regular season. They couldn't handle the pressure of likely sending Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci out with another title.
The Bruins squandered a 3-1 series lead -- with two of the final three games on their home ice -- and a 3-2 lead with a minute left in Game 7. And now they are in shock with a whole summer ahead to reflect on this collapse.
That has been the case for the last 10 Presidents' Trophy winners. The 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks are the last team to win both the Presidents' Trophy and the Stanley Cup in the same season, when they beat the Bruins in six games in the Cup Final.
Since then, the Presidents' Trophy winner has been bounced in the second round seven times, lost in the conference finals once, and now there are two first-round losers: The 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning and your Boston Bruins.
It's not a great group to be a part of, but at least these Bruins weren't swept like that Lightning team. (We guess.)
Going back to 2000, the Bruins are now the seventh Presidents' Trophy winner to get bounced before winning a single playoff series, joining the 2019 Lightning, the 2012 Vancouver Canucks, the 2010 Washington Capitals, the 2009 San Jose Sharks, the 2006 Detroit Red Wings, and the 2000 St. Louis Blues.
Misery loves company, and at least the Bruins are not alone. But considering they rewrote the regular season history books, joining this group in the postseason books isn't going to make them feel much better. This sting is going to last a long, long time.