And so they will be going for an historic three in a row … no, not the Penguins, who have captured two straight Stanley Cups, but the Capitals, who have won consecutive Presidents’ Trophies, for all the good that’s done them.
No team ever has won three straight Presidents’ Trophies — fess up, you too have to look it up every time to check whether the apostrophe belongs before or after the “s” — since the award’s inception for the 1986-87 season.
And no team has finished with the NHL’s best regular-season record three years running since the all-time Canadiens dominated the league in 1975-76, 1976-77 and 1977-78 on their way to winning four straight Stanley Cups back in the day when dynasties reigned.
The Caps, whose failure to advance past the second round the last two years — if not through the entirety of the Alex Ovechkin era — is worthy of an asterisk denoting the unfair NHL playoff format that discriminates against the powerful in favor of the ordinary, won’t match that feat.
Not that folks will much care, and certainly not in D.C., where the relevant question is where the team ranks in the dreaded best-team-never-to-win category, with the winner getting, you know, the Emile Francis Trophy.
The focus in the NHL will be on whether the Maple Leafs and Oilers can skip a step or two and go from first-time playoff participants to legitimate Cup contenders with sparkling arrays of young, dynamic talent. It will be on whether the Flames pulled off the heist of the decade by getting Jaromir Jagr for a song.
And it will be on the Penguins, aiming to become the first team since the mighty Islanders of the early ’80s to win three straight Cups. It will be on Sidney Crosby, who has achieved the most difficult feat possible in sports, that of a generational talent grown into a role model for anyone and everyone who has laced them up.
It is no longer Sid the Kid. It is Crosby trying to hold off the kids, all of those young spectacular talents around the league, as he, his sidekick Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins go for the three that matter.
1. Tampa Bay
This presumes Andrei Vasilevskiy can handle the load without Ben Bishop to rely on; the players haven’t tired of listening to Jon Cooper’s direction; and Steven Stamkos stays healthy. Nikita Kucherov will contend for the Hart Trophy and the Rocket Richard while Mikhail Sergachev bolsters the blue line. This too: if the Islanders are forced to move John Tavares during the season, the Lightning are a prime destination.
2. Edmonton
No reason to expect a relapse from this group that emerged from its cocoon last year, not with a goaltender as sound as Cam Talbot as its backbone. Connor McDavid, the latest in a whole slew of Next Ones to follow The Great One, has become This One.
3. Columbus
Brandon Saad was a far better player for the Blackhawks than he was for the Jackets, but getting Artemi Panarin for him to add to an imposing group of talented forwards who play new-age hockey under a new-age John Tortorella? Unfair. Also perhaps unfair but true, the question of whether Sergei Bobrovsky can take his team on a playoff run.
4. Anaheim
A young, mobile defense with Cam Fowler — read it and weep, Rangers fans — and Josh Manson has taken steps forward in concert with Sami Vatanen and Hampus Lindholm. That is the new foundation of a franchise that is also retooling on the fly following a long run near the top without a title.
5. Pittsburgh
It is difficult to pinpoint a coaching change that yielded as dramatic a result as the one from Mike Johnston to Mike Sullivan midway through 2015-16. Ray Shero sure left more young assets behind than the ownership that fired him ever imagined. Matt Murray seems well equipped to go it without Marc-Andre Fleury behind one of the elite 1-2 punches down the middle in NHL history in Crosby and Malkin.
6. Nashville
Expect the Predators to get a bounce off their march to the finals much in the way the 2014-15 Rangers did, though the injury that will sideline Ryan Ellis into January will place a larger burden on the offense than the forwards have had to carry in the past. Much will be on Ryan Johan$en in the first year of his eight-year, $64 million contract.
7. Washington
Tell me the bigger loss: Ovechkin’s excess poundage or Marcus Johansson? What of the unusual scenario of a coach, in this case Barry Trotz, working in the final year of his contract? And this: the NHL Department of Safety finally seems to see Tom Wilson as malicious in his conduct rather than reckless.
8. Dallas
If Bishop can stay healthy through the year and playoffs, the Stars have, if belatedly, addressed their biggest issue and last year’s fall through the cracks that cost Lindy Ruff his job behind the bench will be remembered as nothing but a stutter step. May be a last shot for Jason Spezza.
9. Toronto
Not quite sure about the blue line, but the talent level of the forwards is off the charts as Auston Matthews enters Year 2 of his quest to be recognized as the greatest American-born player in NHL history.
10. Winnipeg
The Jets are no one-trick pony, with thoroughbreds Patrik Laine, Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler leading the charge up-front ahead of a defense that will have a settled-in Jacob Trouba this time around. And Steve Mason should be steady in nets.
11. Rangers
There is much more of a fabric here than meets the eye, more talent than given credit for, and if Kevin Shattenkirk doesn’t shrink in the spotlight and Henrik Lundqvist can extend his greatness, this is a playoff team in a muddled East.
12. Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau is as dynamic as anybody in the league, and adding Jagr for a song could be one of the steals of whichever century in which No. 68 has played. But can Mike Smith be more dependable here than he tended to be in Arizona the last couple of spins?
13. Minnesota
Zach Parise has to be a depth play now, doesn’t he, beaten down in the way of all smaller power-like wingers. But the Wild are deep and their core on the blue line imposing.
14. Chicago
Muscle memory will help preserve a spot in the postseason for the Blackhawks, an organization that betrayed its supposed class by making assistant coach Mike Kitchen a scapegoat for last year’s first-round washout.
15. Boston
Slowly but surely the B’s are turning it over, with David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy at the hub of an operation that still requires lead minutes from Zdeno Chara and lead performances from Tuukka Rask and Patrice Bergeron.
16. Islanders
Never has a team’s personnel, coaching staff and management team been so dependent on outside forces. The young talent is enticing, Doug Weight is a fetching voice of command and if the state grants the Islanders the home at Belmont the franchise is seeking, this is a worthy playoff team. But if the decision goes against them and is announced during the year, they’re kaput.
17. Carolina
Scott Darling has his team, one that has been undermined by shaky goaltending the last couple of seasons while GM Ron Francis built on the foundation of youth coming through the pipeline. Any team with Justin Williams is better off for it.
18. Ottawa
If Erik Karlsson’s game is diminished by injury by a detectable margin for any significant length of time, head coach Guy Boucher’s enforced system will become far less bearable this time around.
19. Montreal
The point should have been to add Jonathan Drouin to a core in the middle featuring Alexander Radulov at the top, but GM Marc Bergevin refused to up the bid until it was too late just a couple of months after watching P.K. Subban play in the final. Losing Andrei Markov was no help, either.
20. St. Louis
Devastated by injury, unable to sign Jagr and with insecurity in nets, this shapes up for a long season even if Vladimir Tarasenko is always worth watching.
21. Los Angeles
The new-age Kings want to transform into more of a new-era speed team under incoming GM Rob Blake and coach John Stevens, but for the most part they present the same personnel that has missed the playoffs two of the last three years.
22. Buffalo
This is the year for Jack Eichel to take the leap onto a higher plain as Phil Housley gets his feet wet running an NHL bench. Another one of those teams — with Dallas and Calgary — that wouldn’t ante up for Talbot when the Rangers had him on the market, the Sabres instead opting for Robin Lehner.
23. Florida
Last year’s attempt to reinvent the wheel fell flat and here are the Puddy Tats, once more, only without the most recognizable face of the franchise whom the organization (also) kicked to the curb. But if Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad stay healthy, all may not be lost.
24. Arizona
The additions of Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta should provide stability for a young core that should get major boosts from the presence of Clayton Keller and emergence of Dylan Strome.
25. Philadelphia
Claude Giroux should be a significant asset on the left skating with Sean Couturier in the middle. The talent base is improving but does Brian Elliott honestly present a foundation in nets any more reliable than Steve Mason?
26. San Jose
There is a pattern, even if by coincidence, regarding coach Pete DeBoer, whose first years with Florida, New Jersey and San Jose were his best. The Sharks are fading after missing that famous window, and Joe Thornton, if healthy, is more likely to finish the season somewhere else.
27. Devils
The arduous task of revitalizing the talent base is underway, with Nico Hischier and Will Butcher supplementing a too-lonely Taylor Hall. Pavel Zacha, if healthy, should improve dramatically. But it is on coach John Hynes to oversee a work ethic that slipped under his watch last year.
28. Vegas
GM George McPhee, for whom the league shut down for three days prior to the expansion draft so that the Golden Knights could pick and choose, still has all those defensemen and all those draft picks coming. And Marc-Andre Fleury in nets.
29. Vancouver
Bo Horvat, obtained with the No. 9 overall pick the Canucks received in the trade for Cory Schneider, turns out to be former GM Mike Gillis’ parting gift to the organization that parted with him too soon and for no good reason.
30. Detroit
The Red Wings finally are paying the piper, caught in the vortex between declining veterans and not-quite-ready-for-prime-time youngsters, and without a goaltender to provide a rescue.
31. Colorado
It should not have been easy for Joe Sakic to turn what had been an engaging, exciting group under Patrick Roy into this absolute mess, but it has somehow been that under Offer Sheet Broadway Joe. Over/under on the package the Avalanche finally secures for Matt Duchene having more value than the one the Bruins got when trading Thornton?
Larry Brooks’ predictions
East
1. Tampa Bay
2. Columbus
3. Pittsburgh
4. Washington
5. Toronto
6. Boston
7. RANGERS (wild card)
8. ISLANDERS (wild card)
West
1. Edmonton
2. Nashville
3. Anaheim
4. Dallas
5. Winnipeg
6. Calgary
7. Minnesota (wild card)
8. Chicago (wild card)
East Final: Tampa Bay over Pittsburgh
West Final: Edmonton over Dallas
Stanley Cup Final: Tampa Bay over Edmonton
Hart: Connor McDavid, Edmonton
Norris: Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay
Vezina: Cam Talbot, Edmonton
Calder Trophy: Clayton Keller, Arizona
Jack Adams: Doug Weight, Islanders
First to be fired: Jeff Blashill, Detroit
Brett Cyrgallis’ picks
East
1. Columbus
2. Tampa Bay
3. Pittsburgh
4. Toronto
5. Washington
6. Montreal
7. Ottawa (wild card)
8. Rangers (wild card)
West
1. Edmonton
2. Nashville
3. Anaheim
4. Chicago
5. Los Angeles
6. Minnesota
7. Winnipeg (wild card)
8. Calgary (wild card)
East final: Tampa Bay over Columbus
West final: Edmonton over Nashville
Stanley Cup Final: Edmonton over Tampa Bay
Hart: Connor McDavid, Edmonton
Norris: Erik Karlsson, Ottawa
Vezina: Matt Murray, Pittsburgh
Calder: Nico Hischier, Devils
Jack Adams: Todd McLellan, Edmonton
First coach fired: Dave Hakstol, Philadelphia