Can the Bruins avoid the Presidents’ Trophy curse, win the Stanley Cup?
Jim Montgomery believes in “the process.”
That’s what the Boston Bruins coach preaches to his team. A simple strategy to keep his players focused on the present.
No looking back on what’s happened. No dwelling on an uncertain future. Commit to the now and results will come.
Those principles have guided Montgomery throughout his career. But ever so rarely, Montgomery could be persuaded to take the whole big picture in.
It happened on March 30. David Pastrnak had just scored 41 seconds into overtime to down Columbus and earn Boston its franchise-record 58th win of the season. It also secured its long-projected status as the Presidents’ Trophy winners, a distinction awarded annually to the league’s regular-season points leader (additionally, it guarantees Boston home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs).
“It’s been a magical season so far,” the first-year coach reflected. “We know the hardest part is ahead of us, and we’re looking forward to that grind.”
The simplest summation — until it’s fully unpacked. Because Boston is wading into historically tumultuous waters, battling the riptide around that ol’ President Trophy curse.
The hangover accompanying a Presidents’ Trophy victory has drowned decorated Stanley Cup hopefuls for years (we’ll get to the how’s and why’s of that shortly).
Only this Boston team isn’t like any other — literally.
These Bruins are so dazzlingly spectacular they set an NHL record for wins (63) after just 75 games, passing the marvelous 1970s-era Montreal Canadiens, vaunted Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers, dynastic Detroit Red Wings groups and even their closest peer in such jaw-dropping success, the Presidents’ Trophy-winning 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning. For an encore, Boston rewrote the books again with a single-season points record (133), passing the mark set more than 40 years ago by the 1976-77 Canadiens.
The Bruins’ goal differential (plus-127) is the best by a regular-season titleholder since the 1995-96 Red Wings, and Boston has allowed fewer goals (2.10 per game) than any Presidents’ Trophy winner since the Bruins last held that title (2013-14).
Basically, Boston stands alone in its dominance. So, would it be wrong then to deviate from Montgomery’s stay-in-the-moment philosophy and compare the Bruins to Presidents’ Trophy recipients of the past? As if those other fates will determine what Boston can imminently accomplish?
It can be fascinating to speculate (so we will). Why has regular-season success so rarely translated to playoff wins in the NHL? How does hockey stack up to other sports in that respect? And will Boston be the team to sidestep a Presidents’ Trophy jinx?
SUPERSTITIONS BEGIN SIMPLY ENOUGH. The Presidents’ Trophy was introduced back in 1985-86 by the league’s board of governors. It has been awarded 37 times to 18 teams since then.
The 1986-87 Oilers were the first recipients to also win a Stanley Cup the same season. The Calgary Flames (in 1988-89), New York Rangers (1993-94), Dallas Stars (1998-99), Colorado Avalanche (2000-01), Detroit Red Wings (in 2001-02 and 2007-08) and finally Chicago Blackhawks (in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season) would all claim hockey’s hockey grail after pacing the league in regular-season points.
That’s eight teams, out of 36 past Presidents’ Trophy winners, that have achieved their ultimate goal in an ensuing postseason run. Over time, the alleged hex became more pronounced.
Since Detroit’s Cup win in 2007-08, only three subsequent “regular-season champions” have made it through to the final round of the playoffs (the 2014-15 Rangers most recently went furthest by reaching the Eastern Conference finals).
Boston previously won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2013-14 and was bounced in the second round (the Bruins missed the playoffs entirely the following season, one of only three teams to have that happen following a Presidents’ Trophy-winning campaign).
When Tampa Bay had the trophy in 2018-19, it was famously swept in the first round by Columbus. Florida sat atop the league last season with a franchise-record 122 points and then barely scraped together four playoff wins in 10 games, losing in the second round.
More often than not, the Presidents’ Trophy forecasts disappointment. There are ample theories as to why, with multiple common threads.
Pundits frequently argue that having to beat one team four times in a playoff series — as opposed to facing a new challenger each night — reveals a club’s weaknesses. Adjustments are quickly made, and every club is exposed for what it is at its best — and worst.
It’s not about what can be done in the course of eight months, but maybe only eight days. Sticks go from piping hot to freezing cold. Goaltenders have an off game.
When the margin for error disappears, even the most unstoppable group from a week ago can be ousted from contention. It’s especially true when playing an unfamiliar team outside your division. Even a thorough pre-scout won’t account for the desperation and urgency manifesting in the playoffs.
Essentially, regular-season success goes out of the window. And from rewarding that — without comparable playoff results to follow — a “curse” was born.
Boston has succumbed to the Presidents’ Trophy curse on three previous occasions (1989-90, 2013-14 and 2019-20). But these 2022-23 Bruins don’t look back … right?
THE NHL PROVIDES a trophy to its top squad after 82 games, sort of like a consolation prize for the sadness to come.
Not every major sports league hands out similar hardware. But there’s a reasonable correlation between ruling the regular season and then failing to live up to postseason potential.
Hockey’s stats have been established: In the salary cap era (that’s since 2005-06), two of the past 17 Presidents’ Trophy winners have also won the Cup.
In the NBA, five of the past 17 teams to “win” the regular season went on to clinch a championship.
In Major League Baseball, it’s been six of the past 17 regular-season champs going all the way (which includes the Los Angeles Dodgers in a pandemic-shortened season).
And finally, in the NFL, four of the previous 17 top seeds also claimed a Lombardi Trophy (and none since the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles).
That’s 17 titles in 17 years across four leagues, with NHL teams remaining the least likely of all to turn that No. 1 billing into the ultimate prize.
Really then, what’s home-ice (or -court or -field) advantage got to do with it?
Throughout the salary cap stretch, 128 NHL teams have entered the postseason without home-ice advantage. Fifty-three of them moved past the first round, 23 advanced out of the second, 12 made the conference finals, and five won the Cup.
It’s a universal sports truth: When the playoffs begin, all bets are off. Boston has experienced both sides of that cliché in the past, losing out as a Presidents’ Trophy winner and also beating a Presidents’ Trophy winner (the Vancouver Canucks) in the 2010-11 Cup final.
Which end will the Bruins wind up on this season?
EXPERIENCE MUST BE EARNED. And Boston has learned the hard way about postseason failure.
Putting a pin for a minute in all those jaw-dropping triumphs the Bruins have produced this season, would they have been possible if Boston hadn’t been through hardship in potential-packed seasons of the past?
The Bruins aren’t last season’s Panthers on a thrilling, first-of-its-kind run through an offensively dominant regular season. They won’t be relying on playoff newbies who have never weathered the ups and downs of a demanding postseason round.
Boston is battle-tested, with the scars to prove it. The Bruins’ Round 1 exit against Carolina last year clearly stung. Enough so that veteran Patrice Bergeron returned for one more kick at a Cup because he believed there was more in the Bruins’ — and his own — tank.
In 2013-14, Boston was ousted in the second round. Same thing happened in 2019-20. Receiving acclaim in the regular season that ultimately amounts to so little isn’t easy, but it does provide Boston with a mental blueprint on how to get over that hump in this postseason.
Certainly, the Bruins have all the necessary assets and attributes to win a Cup right now.
Boston excelled in almost every regular-season category: The Bruins were second in goals (3.64 per game), first in goals against (2.10), had the No. 1 penalty kill (87.4%) and were top-10 in shots against.
Pastrnak was top five in league scoring, with 60 goals and 111 points. Bergeron and Brad Marchand both passed 20 goals and are as dangerous on any one shift as ever. Hampus Lindholm has garnered Norris Trophy buzz in an exceptional, career-highlight kind of campaign; he and Charlie McAvoy have been workhorses on Boston’s blue line, averaging team-high minutes each night.
David Krejci stepped back into the NHL without a hitch and the Bruins’ scoring depth — featuring great seasons from Pavel Zacha and Jake DeBrusk — is nearly unmatched.
And Linus Ullmark? He paces NHL starters in wins (39), save percentage (.938) and goals-against average (1.89). Ullmark’s backup, Jeremy Swayman, is also top-10 in GAA (2.22), with a .921 SV% to match.
Montgomery came in this season to replace Bruce Cassidy, and it’s been a seamless fit. His simplistic, straightforward approach has steadied the Bruins, made them resilient against inevitable tough times and seemingly prepared them to overcome any challenge.
(Remember when Marchand and McAvoy had to miss the start of this season recovering from respective hip and shoulder surgeries, so everyone wrote the Bruins off entirely? Ah, memories!)
There’s no one secret sauce that has made the Bruins a behemoth. Any summary will only scratch the surface on how mind-bendingly good the team has consistently been this season.
On paper, there’s every reason to think Boston can push past all comers and be the latest Presidents’ Trophy winners to break the cycle of postseason letdown.
But they are not shoo-ins.
THE STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS frequently turn into a war of attrition, as it’s the team that survives best that wins the ultimate prize.
Some would argue it’s the toughest championship hill to climb in all of sports.
The Bruins made it look easy in the regular season, but that’s also months of hockey already under the belts of a veteran-heavy team with a massive target on its back. Everyone wants to see a juggernaut fall. Is Boston up for — and able to stay healthy through — another eight weeks of attrition?
Montgomery gave some players rest down the stretch, but even that can end up being a detriment. Boston is about to face a Florida Panthers team that had to scratch and claw its way into a playoff spot. Momentum is a powerful, unexplainable force, too.
The Bruins also have dealt with late-season injuries to Krejci, Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno. Those can affect a roster, too, both when the players step back in and by not allowing guys as much time to create chemistry — like Hall was supposed to do with trade deadline acquisition Tyler Bertuzzi on a projected third line for the Bruins.
Then there’s Boston’s power play. The Bruins were the 22nd-ranked team with the extra man since Jan. 1 (18.0%), a baffling statistic considering how utterly dominant they’ve been everywhere else. Boston seemed to improve on the power play as the regular season closed out, but in a tightly contested series, any lack of execution of special teams can be disastrous.
Will that come back to bite the Bruins?
THAT TAKES US BACK to the “curse.”
If Boston fails to win the Cup, it won’t be because of some voodoo emanating from a well-deserved, hard-earned Presidents’ Trophy (although they will be another unfortunate statistic).
Upsets are a common occurrence in the Stanley Cup playoffs, even for teams that have dominant regular seasons — the Bruins can ask the 2018-19 Lightning about that.
But that’s how playoffs work. Anyone can win. Heroes emerge every night. History can be written at any moment. The Bruins have been proof of that all season.
Past behavior can often be an excellent indicator of future performance.
Even for Montgomery’s Bruins, who are still enamored with living in their miraculous present.
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Jeff Legwold
BOULDER, Colo. — For the horde of NFL talent evaluators and some bleachers full of fans, Colorado coach Deion Sanders said Friday that they all got to see the top two players available in this year’s NFL draft.
Quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter were among the 16 Colorado players who took part in the school’s showcase event for scouts, coaches and personnel executives from every NFL team. And Deion Sanders said the two marquee players confirmed what he has known for a long time.
“It’s tremendous,” Sanders said. “… They should be going 1-2 [in the draft], that’s the way I feel about it. They are the two best players in this draft. … The surest bets in this draft are those two young men, and I didn’t stutter or stammer when I said that.”
Neither Shedeur Sanders nor Hunter took part in most of the position drills or physical testing, but Sanders had a throwing session for just under an hour and Hunter was one of the wide receivers who participated. Neither player worked out at the scouting combine earlier this year, so it was the first time Sanders had thrown in such a setting since the end of the season. He showed some full seven-step drops and play-action from the shotgun and under center.
“I think I did pretty good, to my expectations,” said Sanders, who set the career FBS accuracy mark in his two years at Colorado (71.8%) to go with his 4,134 passing yards and 37 touchdowns last season. “I know I did the best in college football right now, for sure.”
Asked after the throwing session whether he believed he was the best quarterback in the draft, Sanders said: “I feel like I’m the No. 1 quarterback, and that’s what I know. But at the end of the day, I’m not stuck on that because it’s about the situation, so whatever situation, whatever franchise believes in me, I’m excited to go. … I’m comfortable in any situation.”
Players Hunter, who did not speak to the media after the workout, and Sanders met with the Cleveland Browns contingent, including team co-owner Jimmy Haslam, on Thursday night in Boulder.
“They got me really full,” Sanders said. “I definitely needed to go to the sauna after that. … It was a good vibe.”
Said Deion Sanders said: “[I] spoke to the owner, truly delightful. He was engaging. … I think one of those guys is going to be there [at No. 2].”
Hunter, the No. 1 player on Mel Kiper Jr.’s Big Board, did not do any defensive drills Friday, but he ran a full assortment of routes.
Colorado safety Shilo Sanders, Shedeur’s brother, offered plenty of encouragement, shouting commentary and clapping after each throw, including “not a lot of quarterbacks can make that throw” after one deep completion.
The highly attended event — by NFL representatives as well as fans packing small bleachers — had a festive atmosphere. Deion Sanders named it the “We Ain’t Hard 2 Find Showcase,” complete with a large lighted “The Showcase” sign next to the drills.
Hunter, who has said he wants to play offense and defense in the NFL, won the Chuck Bednarik (top defensive player) and Fred Biletnikoff (top receiver) awards in addition to the Heisman. He said whether he will primarily be a wide receiver or a cornerback in the NFL depends “on the team that picks me.”
On Friday, Deion Sanders said “ain’t nobody like Travis.”
Hunter had 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns as a receiver last season to go with 35 tackles, 11 pass breakups and 4 interceptions at cornerback. In the Buffaloes’ regular-season finale against Oklahoma State, he became the only FBS player in the past 25 years with three scrimmage touchdowns on offense and an interception in the same game, according to ESPN Research.
He played 1,380 total snaps in Colorado’s 12 regular-season games: 670 on offense, 686 on defense and 24 on special teams. He played 1,007 total snaps in 2023.
Shilo Sanders, who hoped to show teams more speed than expected, ran a 4.52 40-yard dash after he measured in at 5-foot-11⅞, 196 pounds. He did not participate in the jumps or bench press that opened the workout, citing a right shoulder injury.
With all NFL eyes on the Colorado campus to see Shedeur Sanders throw, one player who made the most of it was wide receiver Will Sheppard. Sheppard, who measured 6-2¼, 196 pounds, ran the 40 in 4.56 and 4.54 to go with a 40½-inch vertical jump and a 10-foot-11 broad jump.
Baltimore Orioles All-Star shortstop Gunnar Henderson was activated from the 10-day injured list and will make his season debut Friday night against the Kansas City Royals.
Henderson has been sidelined with a right intercostal strain and missed the first seven games of the big league campaign.
The 23-year-old Henderson will lead off and play shortstop against the host Royals.
Henderson was injured during a spring training game Feb. 27. He was fourth in American League MVP voting last season when he batted .281 and racked up career bests of 37 homers and 92 RBIs.
Henderson completed a five-game rehab stint at Triple-A Norfolk on Wednesday. He batted .263 (5-for-19) with two homers and four RBIs and played four games at shortstop and one as the designated hitter. He did commit three errors.
“I think everybody’s looking forward to having Gunnar back on the team,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said Thursday. “The rehab went really, really well. I talked to him a couple days ago, he feels great swinging the bat. The timing came, especially the last few days. He just had to get out there and get some reps defensively and get some games in, and it all went well.”
Baltimore optioned outfielder Dylan Carlson to Triple-A Norfolk to open up a roster spot. The 26-year-old was 0-for-4 with a run and RBI in two games this season.
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Jorge Castillo
When New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns attempted to assemble the best possible roster for the 2025 season this winter, the top priority was signing outfielder Juan Soto. Next was the need to replenish the starting rotation and bolster the bullpen. Then, days before pitchers and catchers reported for spring training, the lineup received one final significant reinforcement when first baseman Pete Alonso re-signed.
Acquiring a player with a singing career on the side didn’t make the cut.
“No, that is not on the list,” Stearns said with a smile.
Stearns’ decision not to re-sign Jose Iglesias, the infielder behind the mic for the viral 2024 Mets anthem “OMG,” was attributed to creating more roster flexibility. But it also hammered home a reality: The scrappy 2024 Mets, authors of a magical summer in Queens, are a thing of the past. The 2025 Mets, who will report to Citi Field for their home opener Friday, have much of the same core but also some prominent new faces — and the new, outsized expectations that come with falling two wins short of the World Series, then signing Soto to the richest contract in professional sports history.
But there’s a question surrounding this year’s team that you can’t put a price tag on: Can these Mets rekindle the magic — the vibes, the memes, the feel-good underdog story — that seemed to come out of nowhere to help carry them to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series last season?
“Last year the culture was created,” Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “It’s a matter of continuing it.”
For all the success Stearns has engineered — his small-market Milwaukee Brewers teams reached the postseason five times in eight seasons after he became the youngest general manager in history in 2015 — the 40-year-old Harvard grad, like the rest of his front office peers knows there’s no precise recipe for clubhouse chemistry. There is no culture projection system. No Vibes Above Replacement.
“Culture is very important,” Stearns said last weekend in the visiting dugout at Daikin Park before his club completed an opening-weekend series against the Houston Astros. “Culture is also very difficult to predict.”
Still, it seems the Mets’ 2024 season will be all but impossible to recreate.
There was Grimace, the purple McDonald’s blob who spontaneously became the franchise’s unofficial mascot after throwing out a first pitch in June. “OMG,” performed under Iglesias’ stage name, Candelita, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Latin Digital Songs chart, before a remix featuring Pitbull was released in October. Citi Field became a karaoke bar whenever Lindor stepped into the batter’s box with The Temptations’ “My Girl” as his walk-up song. Alonso unveiled a lucky pumpkin in October. They were gimmicks that might have felt forced if they hadn’t felt so right.
“I don’t know if what we did last year could be replicated because it was such a chaos-filled group,” Mets reliever Ryne Stanek said. “I don’t know if that’s replicable because there’s just too many things going on. I don’t know if that’s a sustainable model. But I think the expectation of winning is really important. I think establishing what we did last year and coming into this year where people are like, ‘Oh, no, that’s what we’re expecting to do,’ makes it different. It’s always a different vibe whenever you feel like you’re the hunter versus being the hunted.”
For the first two months last season, the Mets were terrible hunters. Lindor was relentlessly booed at Citi Field during another slow start. The bullpen got crushed. The losses piled up. The Mets began the season 0-5 and sunk to rock bottom on May 29 when reliever Jorge Lopez threw his glove into the stands during a 10-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers that dropped the team to 22-33.
That night, the Mets held a players-only meeting. From there, perhaps coincidentally, everything changed. The Mets won the next day, and 67 of their final 107 games.
This year, to avoid an early malaise and to better incorporate new faces like Soto and Opening Day starter Clay Holmes, players made it a point to hold meetings during spring training to lay a strong foundation.
“At the end of the day, we know who we are and that’s the beauty of our club,” Alonso said. “Not just who we are talent-wise, but who each individual is as a man and a personality. For us, our major, major strength is our collective identity as a unit.”
Organizationally, the Mets are attempting a dual-track makeover: Becoming perennial World Series contenders while not taking themselves too seriously.
The commemorative purple Grimace seat installed at Citi Field in September — Section 302, Row 6, Seat 12 in right field — remains there as part of a two-year contract. Last week, the franchise announced it will feature a New York-city themed “Five Borough” race at every home game — with a different mascot competing to represent each borough. For a third straight season, USA Today readers voted Citi Field — home of the rainbow cookie egg roll, among many other innovative treats — as having the best ballpark food in baseball.
In the clubhouse, their identity is evolving.
“I’m very much in the camp that you can’t force things,” Mets starter Sean Manaea said. “I mean, you can, but you don’t really end up with good results. And if you wait for things to happen organically, then sometimes it can take too long. So, there’s like a nudging of sorts. It’s like, ‘Let’s kind of come up with something, but not force it.’ So there’s a fine balance there and you just got to wait and see what happens.”
Stearns believes it starts with what the Mets can control: bringing positive energy every day and fostering a family atmosphere. It’s hard to quantify, but vibes undoubtedly helped fuel the Mets’ 2024 success. It’ll be a tough act to follow.
“It’s fluid,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I like where guys are at as far as the team chemistry goes and things like that and the connections and the relationships. But it’ll continue to take some time. And winning helps, clearly.”
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