Saturday’s showdown of NHL conference leaders in Washington lived up to the hype, and then some, of a best-on-best appetizer before next week’s 4 Nations Face-Off.
But history would also suggest it’s highly unlikely that the entertaining battle between the Winnipeg Jets and Washington Capitals will be a Stanley Cup preview — assuming both teams continue to hold their lofty positions through to the end of the season.
I am not here to say the Jets and Capitals won’t be the last two teams standing come mid-June. But you do have to go back 24 years for the last time a pair of conference champions met in the Stanley Cup final.
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That was in 2001 when Ray Bourque and the Colorado Avalanche outlasted the defending champion New Jersey Devils in a series that went the distance.
It was rare also in that the Avs were one of just three President’s Trophy winners over almost a quarter of a century to also survive the playoff grind.
Detroit did in 2008, and Chicago five years later in 2013 — albeit during a lockout-shortened 48-game schedule.
The point we’re making here is the degree of difficulty involved in finishing ahead of the rest of the pack over 82 games, and then another 25 or so gruelling matchups in the post-season.
Trade deadline acquisitions, injuries, getting hot at the right time, even the hockey gods can play a role in determining that fine line between the one team that survives the Stanley Cup tournament and the 15 who don’t.
The Capitals are zero for three as President’s Trophy winners. Washington was a three-seed when they won it all in 2018, after being a Columbus crossbar away from going down 3-0 to the upstart Blue Jackets in Round 1.
Now, Jets Nation, take heart. Vegas was the No. 1 seed out of the west in 2023, as was Colorado the year before. So it’s not impossible for regular-season success to be duplicated in the playoffs.
As the record shows, it is just incredibly difficult to achieve.
