Plenty of players are dinged up come playoff time. I'd rather give guys like Trocheck, Panarin, Laf, and Fox, a couple of extra days of rest than I'd care about beating Carolina by a point, especially since the data proves that winning that trophy isn't connected in any way to winning a Cup.
In the last 8 seasons, not one President's Trophy winner has even made it to the Finals and only one team has made it to the Conference finals.
And getting the 7th game at home isn't that big a deal. The home team wins 58% of the time, but when you factor in that they're often perceived as the better team going into the round, it doesn't seem worth it to me to push your team at the end of the season.
This doesn't even factor in an injury that could occur in one of these games. Panarin's late-season injury two seasons ago was a big negative, even though he still managed to put up 16 in 20.
The year the Rangers won they had arguably the best defenseman in the NHL and another defenseman who outscored him. You would be hard-pressed to find to find a better pair of defensemen on any team in any season, not to mention how good and deep the rest of that team was. They had 5 Hall of Famers.
