It ought to be worth something, am I right? After all, it should mean something if you end up with the top record in your sport after a demanding six months of competition, right? Or what’s the point really?
That’s what’s known as home-ice, home-court, or home-field advantage, and it’s a fleeting one that may evaporate in the span of sixty minutes, four quarters, or nine innings. Not really that big of an advantage, is it?
Teams that successfully navigate the ordeal ought to be honored. But they’re really not at all. In fact, if the postseason goes poorly, the moniker “regular-season champions” is derogatory.
The Yankees have created the Braves’ history, but they are no longer remembered for their 14 straight division titles. And who would you rather have on the mound, Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz, or David Cone, Andy Pettitte, and El Duque Hernandez?
The Bills, who finished second in the Super Bowl four times, are an oddity whose coach, Marv Levy, is viewed with some pity.
In Monday night’s regular-season finale at the Garden against the Senators, the Rangers would have won the Presidents’ Trophy. It was a race for overall first place. On the line was the first seed in the East. It was a championship game for the Metro Division. There was home ice at stake.
It all came down to avoiding Tampa Bay in the opening round.
When Dave Roberts stole second base at Fenway Park in 2004, he definitively disproved the existence of curses. Indeed, in the eighteen-year history of the hard cap, only the 2008 Red Wings and the 2013 Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup after their wins of the Presidents’ Trophy, but this is by no means an NHL-specific dynamic.
In the past 20 years, only five Super Bowl champions had the greatest record in the NFL. In 54 years of tournament-style baseball, since 1969, when baseball split into divisions and implemented a playoff structure that has gotten progressively more lenient, 15 teams with the best record have won the World Series.
Over the last 23 years, six NBA champions have concluded with the best regular-season record in the league. I recall in the aftermath of Golden State’s historic 73-9 record-setting season in 2015–16, when The Post was listing the NBA’s all-time teams. Our panel placed them among the top two or three, I think. Someone said to me, “Don’t they have to win?”
That implied taking home the title.
which they didn’t.
The Bruins set NHL records last season with 65 wins and 135 points, and even though they had the supposedly crucial home-ice advantage in Game 7, the season was practically forgotten after a first-round loss to the Panthers.
We are aware that the Rangers’ postseason performance will ultimately determine how successful their 2023–24 campaign is. That is a result of 1940, that is a result of the previous year, and that is a result of thirty years again. It also has to do with the realities of the moment. We have completely collapsed into a selfish social construct of “what have you done for me lately?” That was last week, and in this day of instant satisfaction, too long ago.
The more unfortunate. For the Rangers, this has been a season worth celebrating. The team had already recorded a franchise-high 54 victories as of Monday. Even though the introduction of overtime and the shootout skews the results, the Blueshirts entered the final game with the third-best points % in franchise history, trailing only the 1970–71 and 1971–72 teams, which each finished with 109 points in 78 games and a.691 points percentage.
Artemi Panarin, who is two goals shy of 50 goals as of Monday and five points short of Jaromir Jagr’s team record of 123 points from 2005–06, has had an incredible season. After spiraling into disarray last spring, the squad as a whole embraced new head coach Peter Laviolette’s methodical, detail-oriented style this year.
Never were the Rangers flawless. Nevertheless, they continued to win games. They bolted from the 18-4-1 gate. After a two-month sabbatical, they returned and won 20-4-1 right out of the All-Star break. In the final week of October, they won the Metro, and they clung to that victory for every day of the season that remained.
The Rangers had the opportunity to celebrate their season on Monday. It was time to celebrate Rangers season on Monday.
