God, I have seen what you’ve done for others, and I ask only that you offer me just a sliver of your generosity—like the New York Rangers winning the Stanley Cup next year, a win that EA Sports’ NHL 25 has just officially predicted.
NHL 25, the latest entry in the annual hockey sim centered around the U.S. and Canada’s National Hockey League, just dropped on October 4. And though last year it took several months for the game’s official X (formerly Twitter) account to predict a Stanley Cup winner, this year it just took four days, and it’s my New York Rangers.
The NHL 25 Playoff Simulation has the Rangers besting the Penguins in round one, the Devils in round two, and the Bruins in round three, to go on and beat the Edmonton Oilers in seven games for the Stanley Cup. It has last year’s champs, the Florida Panthers, losing in round one (teehee).
Considering my Rangers went all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals this past season just to lose to the Panthers (who won the entire league), it’s not a stretch that they’d be a solid shot to take the Cup this year. Now, can my heart handle another deep playoff run without Adam Fox hoisting the cup overhead at the end of it? No, no it cannot—I had a barback surreptitiously hand me a bunch of crumpled up paper towels because I was leaking snot everywhere while sitting at the bar after watching them get eliminated this past June.
But NHL 24‘s official predictions were wildly, wildly off. That bracket had the Panthers eliminated in round one by the Tampa Bay Lightning (the Lightning were actually eliminated by the Bruins in round one), the Bruins going to the Cup final (when in reality they lost to the Panthers), the Edmonton Oilers eliminated in round two (they went on to the Stanley Cup final), and other inaccurate guesses.
However, a girl can dream. I’ve reached out to EA to see how NHL 25 builds these playoff brackets and will update this story accordingly if I hear back. Until then, I’m texting my family pictures of the New York Rangers looking triumphant. Let’s go, boys.