The Washington Capitals can clinch the Presidents’ Trophy Tuesday night with a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs and a Columbus shootout win over Pittsburgh.
It would be their second consecutive Presidents’ Trophy win, and third overall, with all of them coming in the Alex Ovechkin era.
But finishing with the league’s top record is no guarantee of playoff success, as any Capitals fan can attest to.
The league introduced the trophy ahead of the 1985-86 season, and the teams good enough to win it have had various results in the post-season.
Here’s how the 30 Presidents’ Trophy winners have fared in the playoffs:
Eight teams have gone on to win both the Stanley Cup after being the best NHL team in the regular season, most recently the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks.
Six Presidents’ winners have been eliminated in the first round, with the Capitals being one of those teams in 2009-10.
Still, 11 of the 30 teams to finish the regular season atop the NHL standings have made it all the way to the Stanley Cup final, no small feat given the 16 teams that make it into the post-season.
Time will tell if the Capitals, this season’s likely Presidents’ Trophy winners, can be the 12th.
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