The Tampa Bay Lightning romped to the 2018-19 Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best regular-season team. You'd think that would be a good sign for their Stanley Cup hopes – but it isn't.
The Tampa Bay Lightning romped to the 2018-19 Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best regular-season team. You'd think that would be a good sign for their Stanley Cup hopes – but it isn't.
The Tampa Bay Lightning ran away with the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's 2018-19 regular-season champions. You'd think that would be a good omen, perhaps even a guarantee that the Bolts are poised to cruise to a Stanley Cup title – but you'd be wrong.
In the past 10 years, only one Presidents' Trophy winner has parlayed their regular-season success into a Stanley Cup – the Chicago Blackhawks in lockout-shortened 2012-13. In that 48-game campaign, the Hawks earned at least a point in an NHL-record 24 games from the start of the season (21-0-3), and then won the last game of the season as well. But those Blackhawks are the exception that proves the rule when it comes regular-season prowess and capturing the Cup. (In fact, the 2010-11 Vancouver Canucks are the only other Presidents' Trophy winner in the past decade to even make it to the Cup final – and it didn't end well.)
In the two tables below, the past 10 Cup champions are listed as well as the year-by-year Presidents' Trophy winners. Table 1 shows the Cup champion's regular-season finish along with their NHL rank in goals per game (GPG) and goals-against average (GAA). Table 2 shows the Cup champion's regular-season finish along with their NHL rank on the power play (PP) and penalty kill (PK).
TABLE 1
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TABLE 2
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