Getty New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin celebrates a victory
A few days ago, New York Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette talked the talk. On Saturday, he and his players walked the walk by defeating the Florida Panthers 4-3 in a game that ended in a shootout win.
Asked by a reporter on Wednesday, March 20, Laviolette was discussed whether finishing the season with the no. 1 seed in the NHL Eastern Conference would factor into a potential playoff run or not.
“That’s a funny question you get asked out all the time,” Laviolette answered. “But if you’re asking me if we want to win the game [Thursday, against the Bruins], we sure do. And then if we go to the next day, if you’re asking me if we want to win that game [Saturday, against the Panthers], we sure do. And if that leads to us being first overall, then that’s the way it played out.”
In beating the Panthers on Saturday, March 23, the Rangers (47-20-4, 98 points) took sole possession of the top seed in the conference by overtaking the Boston Bruins (41-16-15, 97 points) and leading them by one point in the standings entering Sunday.
If the regular season ended today, the Rangers would be named the President’s Trophy winners as the team with the most points earned before the playoffs.
The Rangers earned their first comeback win this year thanks to goals by Artemi Panarin (twice) and Adam Fox after falling down 0-2 early into the second frame. Vincent Trocheck didn’t score but put up three assists while netminder Igor Shesterkin stopped 27 shots as well as two attempts in the shootout to thrust the Rangers into their 47th win of the season.
The NHL President’s Trophy… A Blessing or A Curse?
If you’re wondering why winning as many games and earning as many points as possible–and lifting the President’s Trophy by extension–could mean trouble, that’s because of the classic “President’s Curse” narrative that surrounds the accolade.
The Rangers, however, didn’t seem to be overly concerned about heading into the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the best regular-season team in the NHL. Far from it. This week alone, New York defeated Boston 5-2 and then doubled down on their winning streak by beating Florida, making it back-to-back victories against two top-five teams in the league.
The talk in the streets says that getting into the postseason boasting the best regular-season record is an automatic disqualifier for winning the Stanley Cup. That’s far from facts, as eight of 37 teams to do it since the trophy was first introduced in 1986 went on to win the championship.
That being said, it’s also true that no President’s Trophy winner has won the Stanley Cup since the Chicago Blackhawks last did it in the 2012-13 season.
That’s correct; it’s been more than a decade since the last time it happened, and only once did that team advance past the second round of the playoffs. Who was that team, you ask? The New York Rangers in 2015 when they lost to eventual champions the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final.
New York’s Struggles Against Tampa Bay Are Real
Most probably, that potential matchup against the Lightning is what truly concerns the Rangers even though they will never publicly acknowledge it.
What lies in the future of the Rangers will depend on where they finish in the Eastern Conference standings. As things stand, entering Sunday, March 24, New York would match up against the Detroit Red Wings (36-29-6, 78 points) as they have the second wild card berth right now.
If New York falls from the no. 1 seed in the East (while still winning the Metropolitan Division; they have a 3-point advantage over the Carolina Hurricanes), then they are virtually guaranteed to face some old times’ ghosts in matching up with the Lighting (38-25-7, 83 points).
Not only did the Lightning eliminate the Rangers from the playoffs in 2015, but they did so once more in 2022 this season they edged New York 2-1 in their regular-season matchups, including beating them in a come-from-behind 6-3 victory on Thursday, March 14, scoring four unanswered goals.
Finishing atop the Eastern Conference standings means New York would (most probably) face the Detroit Red Wings, Washington Capitals, or Philadelphia Flyers (who welcomed back team captain Sean Couturier on Saturday, March 23, after he was scratched in their prior two games) in the first round. Not doing so would put them in a virtual lock for a matchup against Tampa.
A media member asked Laviolette how the victory and taking over the no. 1 seed set the Rangers up for the rest of the season. “I think we’ll probably just go slow,” Laviolette told reporters in his postgame press conference on March 23. “I like your big-picture idea, (but) you can keep that to yourself.
“We’re just going to go slow,” Laviolette finished.