It should count for something, right? I mean, if you finish with the best record in your sport after going through a grueling six-month schedule, it should count for something meaningful, correct? Or, really, what’s the point?
Home-ice, or home-court, or home-field advantage, that’s what, and it is an advantage so ephemeral that it can be frittered away after 60 minutes, four quarters or nine innings. Not a meaningful advantage at all, is it?
Teams that make it through the gauntlet should be celebrated. They’re not, though, not at all. Indeed, the term “regular-season champions” becomes a pejorative if the postseason does not go well.
The Braves once won 14 straight division titles but are lost in the history written by the Yankees. And who do you want on the mound, David Cone, Andy Pettitte and El Duque Hernandez or Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz?
The four-time Super Bowl runner-up Bills stand as a curiosity whose coach, Marv Levy, is remembered with a touch of sympathy.
A victory over the Senators in Monday’s regular-season finale at the Garden would have clinched the Presidents’ Trophy for the Rangers. First-place overall was on the line. First seed in the East was on the line. The Metro Division championship was on the line. Home ice was on the line.
Avoiding Tampa Bay in the first round was on the line.
Dave Roberts stole second base at Fenway in 2004 and proved once and for all there is no such thing as a curse. And yes, it is true that the 2008 Red Wings and the 2013 Blackhawks are the only two teams in the 18-year history of the hard cap to win the Stanley Cup after having won the Presidents’ Trophy, but this is not an NHL-specific dynamic at all.
Only five Super Bowl winners of the last 20 years finished with the NFL’s best record. Since baseball broke into divisions in 1969 and adopted a playoff system that has become more generous every iteration, 15 teams with the best record have won the World Series in 54 years of tournament-style ball.
Six NBA champions over the last 23 years have finished with the league’s best regular-season record. I remember when The Post was ranking the NBA’s all-time teams in the wake of Golden State’s 2015-16 season in which the Dubs set the record for victories by going 73-9. I believe they were ranked in the top two or three by our panel. I asked someone, don’t they have to win?
That meant winning the championship.
Which they did not.
Just last year the Bruins established NHL records with 65 victories and 135 points and the season essentially was never spoken of again after a first-round defeat to the Panthers even while holding the allegedly critical Game 7 home-ice advantage.
We know that the Rangers’ 2023-24 is ultimately going to be evaluated by how far they go in the playoffs. That’s a function of 1940, that’s a function of 30 years again, that’s a function of last year. It’s also a function of present-day reality. We have devolved fully into a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately social construct. In the age of instant gratification, last week was too long ago.
More’s the pity. For this has been a season for the Rangers that merits celebration. Entering Monday, the club had already posted a franchise record 54 wins. And while it is true that the advent of overtime and the shootout skews the stat, the Blueshirts went into the finale with a .691 points percentage that was third in franchise history behind the 1970-71 and 1971-72 clubs that went .699 with 109 points in 78 games each of those two seasons.
This was a season in which to marvel at the exploits of Artemi Panarin, two shy of 50 goals entering Monday and five points shy of Jaromir Jagr’s 2005-06 franchise-record 123 points. This was a year to appreciate how the team as a collective embraced incoming head coach Peter Laviolette’s detail-oriented, structured approach after devolving into dysfunction last spring.
The Rangers were never perfect. But they won games and won games and won games. They burst out of the gate 18-4-1. They emerged from a two-month detour to burst out of the All-Star break 20-4-1. They took first place in the Metro the last week of October and they held on to it for dear life for every single remaining day of the season.
Monday was the chance for the Rangers to commemorate their season. Monday was the opportunity to celebrate the Rangers season.
Celebrations will be put on hold starting Tuesday.
Nobody wants to be the Bills.
