Barring a total collapse with nine games remaining, the Colorado Avalanche are going to secure the top seed in the NHL’s Western Conference, and with it, home ice advantage throughout the upcoming playoffs. After bludgeoning the Calgary Flames 9-2 on Monday night, the Avs are eight points up on the suddenly mortal Dallas Stars, who have recently been playing .500 hockey after weeks of looking like they couldn’t lose. The two best teams in the sport have one regular-season meeting remaining, coming up this Saturday in Dallas. The Avs, however, have an easier remaining schedule — including Wednesday night’s game against the lowly Vancouver Canucks, and two more contests with the same Flames they just doused. All they have to do, realistically, is grab another 12 points in those nine games and the dreaded President’s Trophy will certainly end up in Ball Arena. More on that in a moment.
Just as a measure, Colorado is currently 10 points better than any other team in the league. And Dallas would be leading every other division in the NHL.
A first-round match up with the eighth-seeded wild-card team (either Nashville, Los Angeles or perhaps Winnipeg) is what awaits Colorado should the Avs win the Central Division. But due to the league’s goofy playoff format that over-emphasizes divisional play, the Avs and Stars won’t have to wait until the conference finals to square off in what should be another epic, seven-game series… assuming Dallas gets past third-place (in the Central and in the entire league) Minnesota in a rugged first-round series. It could set up a de facto NHL Finals matchup in round two. The good thing is that either Minnesota or Dallas will be gone right away. The bad news is that the Avs have to play the winner of that series before they can even sniff the Western Conference Finals.
As scary as Dallas is for Avs faithful – given the postseason hex the Stars seem to have on Colorado – something equally concerning is also floating around out there; the dreaded President’s Trophy curse.
Think about it. Who wouldn’t want to finish with the best record in their league, in any sport? Are the L.A. Dodgers afraid of outpacing the rest of the National League during the regular season? Every team in the NFL wants to finish on top to have home field throughout the playoffs. Same with the NBA. Starting and potentially finishing a seven-game series at home is a reward in those sports.
But in hockey, not so much. At least not recently.
Amazingly, it will have been 13 full seasons this spring since the team that won the President’s Trophy also won the Stanley Cup in the same season: not since the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks has any NHL team won both. Think back just a couple of seasons ago, when the mighty Boston Bruins set a record for the most points accumulated in a single season with an astonishing total of 135.
They lost in the first round of the playoffs to the eighth-seeded Florida Panthers.
That was not an anomaly. Since they started handing out the Trophy back in 1986, only eight of 38 President’s Trophy winners have also won the Stanley Cup.
So the Avs will be battling their recent playoff history with Dallas and the entire league’s recent playoff history with regards to the President’s Trophy as well.
No pressure.
