Presidents' Trophy Jinx?

All the Presidents' men don't always get what's coming to them in the NHL. The Presidents' Trophy, given to the team with the most regular-season points, hasn't been a natural precursor to Stanley Cup glory.

Just six of the 20 recipients of the trophy have achieved the double-double. That includes the 2005-06 Presidents' winners, the Detroit Red Wings, who were unceremoniously ousted by the Edmonton Oilers in six games in the first round of the playoffs.

The upset was perhaps made more shocking by the fact that the jinx seemed to be waning, with three Stanley Cup wins for the Presidents' Trophy winners in the last six playoffs.

Detroit, in fact, was one of those teams, having pulled off the feat in 2002. Colorado (2001) and Dallas (1999) also did it in recent years.

Make way for a more potent curse, then: finishing second in the regular season points race has been pure poison for Cup victory prospects. Strangely, only a pair of such teams have gone on to win the Stanley Cup: Colorado (1996) and Tampa Bay (2004).

The Carolina Hurricanes/Ottawa Senators will look to make it two-for-two for the No. 2's.

Teams that hoisted Lord Stanley but didn't win the Presidents' Trophy have typically come from the ranks of anywhere from third to seventh overall in a full season of play.

The New Jersey Devils went on to win the Cup in 1995 despite being tied for ninth, but that was the lockout-abbreviated season, which resulted in teams bunched closer together in the standings.

The Devils, despite winning three championships in recent years, have actually never won the Presidents' Trophy.

Pittsburgh also has a strange history with respect to regular season and playoff success. The Penguins won the Cup in 1991 after finishing in a three-way tie for seventh overall. The next season they placed only one spot higher but still won it all when it mattered most.

Fresh off the back-to-back championships, they won their first Presidents' Trophy in 1993.

What happened that playoff year? Of course, they were upset by the New York Islanders, with the Montreal Canadiens (seventh overall) winning that franchise's 24th championship.

While Presidents' Trophy winners may not always succeed that particular season, there is a strong correlation with Stanley Cup success within the same era, with many teams becoming the regular season champs a season or two before going all the way in the playoffs, seemingly learning from the hard knocks of previous years.

Just four franchises have won el Presidente without having won the Cup within the same era: Ottawa (2003), St. Louis (2000), Chicago (1991) and Boston (1990).

Of course, many of those Senators are still around, and they'll have the opportunity to change that situation in the 2006 playoffs.