Presidents' Trophy curse continues with Bruins' stunning collapse

It's been 10 years since the Chicago Blackhawks won the Presidents' Trophy in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 regular season and then won the Stanley Cup in the months following. 

For every team since, the Presidents' Trophy has been a kiss of death, with the Boston Bruins becoming the latest team to fall victim to the curse.

The Bruins, who set records with their 65-win and 165-point regular season, blew a 3-1 series lead before losing Game 7 in overtime to the Florida Panthers on Sunday night.

Boston fell behind 2-0 on Sunday, but rallied to hold a 3-2 lead before the Panthers pushed the game to overtime with just a minute left. Carter Verhaeghe scored to end the Bruins' historic campaign eight and a half minutes into the first overtime period.

“We’re down a goal with under two minutes to go against Boston. I wouldn’t bet everything, because the math doesn’t add up,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice  said. “But when that goal goes in you go, ‘Ohhh, we’re going to win this game.’”

“The fact that we were able to do what we did after what they did all year … they’re an unreal team and the best I’ve played in my NHL career. The fact that we were able to beat them was crazy,” added forward Matthew Tkachuk.

“Let's be honest: Nobody in the whole world thought we were going to win that series except for the guys in (our) room.”

The Bruins held a 34-4-3 record on home ice during the regular season before dropping three of four games at TD Garden in the series. Boston becomes just the second Presidents' Trophy winner in the past 10 years to exit the playoffs in the first round, joining the 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning, who were swept in the opening round by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The current 10-year drought for Presidents' Trophy winners was kicked off by the Bruins in 2014, and extended by the franchise again in 2020. 

Of the past 10 winners, only the 2015 New York Rangers reached the conference final before being eliminated, with no team reaching the Stanley Cup Final.
 

Since the year 2000, only four teams have won the Presidents' Trophy and gone on to win the Stanley Cup.

The trophy that took 82 games to earns serves as little consolation when a championship doesn't follow.

"The way it ended didn't matter, how it ended, it just, the season's over," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said after his team's exit. "I guess the words that come to mind right now is disappointment, confusion."