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.
Thoroughbred racing suffered its most ignominious, industry-deflating moment 50 years ago today with the breakdown of Ruffian, an undefeated filly running against Foolish Pleasure in a highly promoted match race at Belmont Park. Her tragic end on July 6, 1975, was a catastrophe for the sport, and observers say racing has never truly recovered.
Two years earlier, during the rise of second-wave feminism, the nation had been mesmerized by a “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King’s win became a rallying cry for women everywhere. The New York Racing Association, eager to boost daily racing crowds in the mid-1970s, proposed a competition similar to that of King and Riggs. They created a match race between Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure and Ruffian, the undefeated filly who had dominated all 10 of her starts, leading gate to wire.
“In any sport, human or equine, it’s really impossible to say who was the greatest,” said outgoing Jockey Club chairman Stuart Janney III, whose parents, Stuart and Barbara, owned Ruffian. “But I’m always comfortable thinking of Ruffian as being among the four to five greatest horses of all time.”
Ruffian, nearly jet black in color and massive, was the equine version of a Greek goddess. At the age of 2, her girth — the measurement of the strap that secures the saddle — was just over 75 inches. Comparatively, racing legend Secretariat, a male, had a 76-inch girth when he was fully developed at the age of 4.
Her name also added to the aura. “‘Ruffian’ was a little bit of a stretch because it tended to be what you’d name a colt, but it turned out to be an appropriate name,” Janney said.
On May 22, 1974, Ruffian equaled a Belmont Park track record, set by a male, in her debut at age 2, winning by 15 lengths. She set a stakes record later that summer at Saratoga in the Spinaway, the most prestigious race of the year for 2-year-old fillies. The next spring, she blew through races at longer distances, including the three races that made up the so-called Filly Triple Crown.
Some in the media speculated that she had run out of female competition.
Foolish Pleasure had meanwhile ripped through an undefeated 2-year-old season with championship year-end honors. However, after starting his sophomore campaign with a win, he finished third in the Florida Derby. He also had recovered from injuries to his front feet to win the Wood Memorial and then the Kentucky Derby.
Second-place finishes in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes left most observers with the idea that Foolish Pleasure was the best 3-year-old male in the business.
Following the Belmont Stakes, New York officials wanted to test the best filly against the best colt.
The original thought was to include the Preakness winner, Master Derby, in the Great Match Race, but the team of Foolish Pleasure’s owner, trainer and rider didn’t want a three-horse race. Since New York racing had guaranteed $50,000 to the last-place horse, they paid Master Derby’s connections $50,000 not to race. Thus, the stage was set for an equine morality play.
“[Ruffian’s] abilities gave her the advantage in the match race,” Janney said. “If she could do what she did in full fields [by getting the early lead], then it was probably going to be even more effective in a match.”
Several ballyhooed match races in sports history had captured the world’s attention without incident — Seabiscuit vs. Triple Crown winner War Admiral in 1938, Alsab vs. Triple Crown winner Whirlaway in 1942, and Nashua vs. Swaps in 1955. None of those races, though, had the gender divide “it” factor.
The Great Match Race attracted 50,000 live attendees and more than 18 million TV viewers on CBS, comparable to the Grammy Awards and a pair of NFL “Sunday Night Football” games in 2024.
Prominent New York sportswriter Dick Young wrote at the time that, for women, “Ruffian was a way of getting even.”
“I can remember driving up the New Jersey Turnpike, and the lady that took the toll in one of those booths was wearing a button that said, ‘I’m for her,’ meaning Ruffian,” Janney said.
As the day approached, Ruffian’s rider, Jacinto Vasquez, who also was the regular rider of Foolish Pleasure including at the Kentucky Derby, had to choose whom to ride for the match race.
“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure, and I knew what he could do,” Vasquez told ESPN. “But I didn’t think he could beat the filly. He didn’t have the speed or stamina.”
Braulio Baeza, who had ridden Foolish Pleasure to victory in the previous year’s premier 2-year-old race, Hopeful Stakes, was chosen to ride Foolish Pleasure.
“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure and ridden against Ruffian,” Baeza said, with language assistance from his wife, Janice Blake. “I thought Foolish Pleasure was better than Ruffian. She just needed [early race] pressure because no one had ever pressured her.”
The 1⅛ mile race began at the start of the Belmont Park backstretch in the chute. In an ESPN documentary from 2000, Jack Whitaker, who hosted the race telecast for CBS, noted that the atmosphere turned eerie with dark thunderclouds approaching before the race.
Ruffian hit the side of the gate when the doors opened but straightened herself out quickly and assumed the lead. “The whole world, including me, thought that Ruffian was going to run off the screen and add to her legacy,” said longtime New York trainer Gary Contessa, who was a teenager when Ruffian ruled the racing world.
However, about ⅛ of a mile into the race, the force of Ruffian’s mighty strides snapped two bones in her front right leg.
“When she broke her leg, it sounded like a broken stick,” Vasquez said. “She broke her leg between her foot and her ankle. When I pulled up, the bone was shattered above the ankle. She couldn’t use that leg at all.”
It took Ruffian a few moments to realize what had happened to her, so she continued to run. Vasquez eventually hopped off and kept his shoulder leaning against her for support.
“You see it, but you don’t want to believe it,” Janney said.
Baeza had no choice but to have Foolish Pleasure finish the race in what became a macabre paid workout. The TV cameras followed him, but the eyes of everyone at the track were on the filly, who looked frightened as she was taken back to the barn area.
“When Ruffian broke down, time stood still that day,” Contessa said. Yet time was of the essence in an attempt to save her life.
Janney said that Dr. Frank Stinchfield — who was the doctor for the New York Yankees then and was “ahead of his time in fixing people’s bones” — called racing officials to see whether there was anything he could do to help with Ruffian.
New York veterinarian Dr. Manny Gilman managed to sedate Ruffian, performed surgery on her leg and, with Stinchfield’s help, secured her leg in an inflatable cast. When Ruffian woke up in the middle of the night, though, she started fighting and shattered her bones irreparably. Her team had no choice but to euthanize her at approximately 2:20 a.m. on July 7.
“She was going full bore trying to get in front of [Foolish Pleasure] out of the gate,” Baeza said. “She gave everything there. She gave her life.”
Contessa described the time after as a “stilled hush over the world.”
“When we got the word that she had rebroken her leg, the whole world was crying,” Contessa said. “I can’t reproduce the feeling that I had the day after.”
The Janneys soon flew to Maine for the summer, and they received a round of applause when the pilot announced their presence. At the cottage, they were met by thousands of well-wishing letters.
“We all sat there, after dinner every night, and we wrote every one of them back,” Janney said. “It was pretty overwhelming, and that didn’t stop for a long time. I still get letters.”
Equine fatalities have been part of the business since its inception, like the Triple Crown races and Breeders’ Cup. Some have generated headlines by coming in clusters, such as Santa Anita in 2019 and Churchill Downs in 2023. However, breakdowns are not the only factor, and likely not the most influential one, in the gradual decline of horse racing’s popularity in this country.
But the impact from the day of Ruffian’s death, and that moment, has been ongoing for horse racing.
“There are people who witnessed the breakdown and never came back,” Contessa said.
Said Janney: “At about that time, racing started to disappear from the national consciousness. The average person knows about the Kentucky Derby, and that’s about it.”
Equine racing today is a safer sport now than it was 50 years ago. The Equine Injury Database, launched by the Jockey Club in 2008, says the fatality rate nationally in 2024 was just over half of what it was at its launch.
“We finally have protocols that probably should have been in effect far sooner than this,” Contessa said. “But the protocols have made this a safer game.”
Said Vasquez: “There are a lot of nice horses today, but to have a horse like Ruffian, it’s unbelievable. Nobody could compare to Ruffian.”
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — A blunder that typifies the current state of the New York Yankees, who find themselves in the midst of their second six-game losing streak in three weeks, happened in front of 41,401 fans at Citi Field on Saturday, and almost nobody noticed.
The Yankees were jogging off the field after securing the third out of the fourth inning of their 12-6 loss to the Mets when shortstop Anthony Volpe, as is standard for teams across baseball at the end of innings, threw the ball to right fielder Aaron Judge as he crossed into the infield from right field.
Only Judge wasn’t looking, and the ball nailed him in the head, knocking his sunglasses off and leaving a small cut near his right eye. The wound required a bandage to stop the bleeding, but Judge stayed in the game.
“Confusion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I didn’t know what happened initially. [It just] felt like something happened. Of course I was a little concerned.”
Avoiding an injury to the best player in baseball was on the Yankees’ very short list of positives in another sloppy, draining defeat to their crosstown rivals. With the loss, the Yankees, who held a three-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East standings entering June 30, find themselves tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place three games behind the Blue Jays heading into Sunday’s Subway Series finale.
The nosedive has been fueled by messy defense and a depleted pitching staff that has encountered a wall.
“It’s been a terrible week,” said Boone, who before the game announced starter Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.
For the second straight day, the Mets capitalized on mistakes and cracked timely home runs. After slugging three homers in Friday’s series opener, the Mets hit three more Saturday — a grand slam in the first inning from Brandon Nimmo to take a 4-0 lead and two home runs from Pete Alonso to widen the gap.
Nimmo’s blast — his second grand slam in four days — came after Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez misplayed a ball hit by the Mets’ leadoff hitter in the first inning. On Friday, he misread Nimmo’s line drive and watched it sail over his head for a double. On Saturday, he was slow to react to Starling Marte’s flyball in the left-center field gap and braked without catching or stopping it, allowing Marte to advance to second for a double. Yankees starter Carlos Rodon then walked two batters to load the bases for Nimmo, who yanked a mistake, a 1-2 slider over the wall.
“That slider probably needs to be down,” said Rodon, who allowed seven runs (six earned) over five innings. “A lot of misses today and they punished them.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throwing woes at third base — a position the Yankees have asked him to play to accommodate DJ LeMahieu at second base — continued in the second inning when he fielded Tyrone Taylor’s groundball and sailed a toss over first baseman Cody Bellinger’s head. Taylor was given second base and scored moments later on Marte’s RBI single.
The Yankees were charged with their second error in the Mets’ four-run seventh inning when center fielder Trent Grisham charged Francisco Lindor’s single up the middle and had it bounce off the heel of his glove.
The mistake allowed a run to score from second base without a throw, extending the Mets lead back to three runs after the Yankees had chipped their deficit, and allowed a heads-up Lindor to advance to second base. Lindor later scored on Alonso’s second home run, a three-run blast off left-hander Jayvien Sandridge in the pitcher’s major league debut.
“Just got to play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s fundamentals. Making a routine play, routine. It’s just the little things. That’s what it kind of comes down to. But every good team goes through a couple bumps in the road.”
This six-game losing skid has looked very different from the Yankees’ first. That rough patch, consisting of losses to the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels, was propelled by offensive troubles. The Yankees scored six runs in the six games and gave up just 16. This time, run prevention is the issue; the Yankees have scored 34 runs and surrendered 54 in four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto and two in Queens.
“The offense is starting to swing the bat, put some runs on the board,” Boone said. “The pitching, which has kind of carried us a lot this season, has really, really struggled this week. We haven’t caught the ball as well as I think we should.
“So, look, when you live it and you’re going through it, it sucks, it hurts. But you got to be able to handle it. You got to be able to deal with it. You got to be able to weather it and come out of this and grow.”
Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was on the roster when the franchise won the 2005 World Series, died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, the team announced.
Jenks, 44, who had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, this year, spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and also played for the Boston Red Sox in 2011. The reliever finished his major league career with a 16-20 record, 3.53 ERA and 173 saves.
“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago. He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend and teammate. He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”
After Jenks moved to Portugal last year, he was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. That eventually spread into blood clots in his lungs, prompting further testing. He was later diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and began undergoing radiation.
In February, as Jenks was being treated for the illness, the White Sox posted “We stand with you, Bobby” on Instagram, adding in the post that the club was “thinking of Bobby as he is being treated.”
In 2005, as the White Sox ended an 88-year drought en route to the World Series title, Jenks appeared in six postseason games. Chicago went 11-1 in the playoffs, and he earned saves in series-clinching wins in Game 3 of the ALDS at Boston, and Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros.
In 2006, Jenks saved 41 games, and the following year, he posted 40 saves. He also retired 41 consecutive batters in 2007, matching a record for a reliever.
“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” Jenks said in his last interview with SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I [was] playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”
A native of Mission Hills, California, Jenks appeared in 19 games for the Red Sox and was originally drafted by the then-Anaheim Angels in the fifth round of the 2000 draft.
Jenks is survived by his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, their two children, Zeno and Kate, and his four children from a prior marriage, Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson.