Rangers aware of Presidents' Trophy curse as they face Carolina Hurricanes in second round
The New York Rangers are well aware about the difficulties Presidents’ Trophy winners have had in advancing in the Stanley Cup playoffs. They’re just not thinking about that.
Since the award was first given to team with the highest point total during the regular season in 1986, only eight of those teams won the championship. Chicago was the last to do it in 2013, and the 2015 Rangers are the only team since then to advance beyond the second round.
“We don’t live under a rock,” New York forward Mika Zibanejad said. “We know what has been happening to previous Presidents’ winners, but at the same time I don’t know if that’s the main thing that drives us.”
Captain Jacob Trouba echoed that sentiment, adding: “Things in the past or trends ... I don’t think our group really reads too much into them. We’re just trying to write our own page, our own story and that’s, I guess, the focus.”