Electronic Arts has completed its annual NHL playoff simulation, and based on the results the people of Boston should prepare for a victory celebration. Using NHL 14, EA Sports is predicting that for the second time in four years, the Boston Bruins will soon be hoisting the Stanley Cup in victory.
According to the simulation, Boston will advance to the Stanley Cup Finals to face the San Jose Sharks. Despite the Sharks’ Joe Thornton and Logan Couture finishing with the top two points totals throughout the playoffs, the Bruins are predicted to win the series 4 games to 2. Boston’s David Krejci ended the simulated playoffs as the top Bruins point scorer, with 21 points.
In the simulation, in order to reach the Stanley Cup Finals the Bruins defeated the Detroit Red Wings four games to two, the Montreal Canadiens 4-1, and then the New York Rangers 4-3. To win the Western Conference, the Sharks defeated a pair of in-state rivals with a 4-2 series victory over the Kings and a 4-1 victory against the Anaheim Ducks. The Sharks then beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 to advance and face Boston.
Electronic Arts loves to use its sports games to simulate real life playoffs, but before you go taking these results too seriously you should know that in 2013 EA Sports predicted the New York Rangers to win the Cup. In reality, the Bruins beat the Rangers in the second round, and the Chicago Blackhawks went on to win it all. To be fair, EA Sports did predict the Blackhawks to advance to the Finals.
More recently though, EA Sports’ Madden 25 picked the Denver Broncos to beat the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII. We ran our own Super Bowl simulation on three different gaming systems, and all three versions came up with the Broncos as well. As the tear-streaked fans in Denver can tell you, things didn’t turn out quite as Madden predicted.
NHL 14 had a few other interesting predictions of note besides the Finals. In the Eastern Conference, the Canadiens and Rangers are both expected to sweep their first round games, the Rangers are predicted to upset the Penguins in the second round, and the Conference Championship will be one of the closest series of the Playoffs. According to the simulation, The Bruins and the Rangers series will be decided in overtime in the seventh game.
In the Western Conference, the defending champion Blackhawks went down three games to one, then came back to beat the St. Louis Blues in seven games. The Minnesota Wild also nearly managed to pull off a major upset by defeating the Avalanche, but Colorado survived and advanced to the Finals.
The real NHL Playoffs begin on April 16.
