Rangers aware of Presidents’ Trophy curse in playoffs

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 it.

Since the award was first given to the 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 said: “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 the focus.”

The Rangers — seeking their first Stanley Cup title since 1994, when they also won the Presidents’ Trophy — open the second round of the playoffs against the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden today.

The Hurricanes are the favourites to win the Stanley Cup, according to Bet MGM Sportsbook. Under the NHL’s divisional-playoff format, the series pits the Rangers — the top regular-season team with 114 points — and the Hurricanes, who were three points back and third in the overall NHL standings.

“The Rangers were the best team and we were on their heels all year,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

“Whether you play them in the first round or the second or third, you’ve got to get through the best at some point. So have at it now, I think it’s going to be exciting.”

The Hurricanes, who reached the Eastern Conference final last year, are in the postseason for the sixth straight year under Brind’Amour. Their win against the Islanders in the first round marked the first time a franchise has won at least one series in six straight years since Detroit did it from 1995-2000.

This also marks the first time the Hurricanes won’t have home-ice advantage for a postseason series since 2019, excluding games played in the bubble four years ago.