To hear EA Sports tell it, we’re getting a 2011 rematch in this year’s Stanley Cup Final.
After crunching the numbers, the Vancouver-based software giant determined that the Canucks will vanquish the Boston Bruins in seven games this spring to capture their first championship.
EA Sports released its official simulation of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Friday afternoon. The NHL and Madden publisher posts its playoff predictions every year around this time, using its latest NHL video game engine — in this case, the one from NHL 24 — as the basis for its prognostications.
If everything plays out according to EA’s calculations, the Canucks will sweep the Nashville Predators in Round 1 before bouncing the Edmonton Oilers four games to two in the second round.
Then, they’ll use the maximum seven games to prevail over the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final before toppling the Bruins in seven to win the Stanley Cup.
Back in 2011, the Canucks and Bruins also went to seven, with Boston winning the decisive Game 7 in Vancouver by a 4-0 score to capture its first championship since 1972.
The Bruins haven’t won the Stanley Cup since … in reality, that is. EA predicted last year that the Bruins would meet the Seattle Kraken, of all teams, in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, with Boston taking it four games to one. Of course, that didn’t happen: Seattle only made it to the second round, while the Florida Panthers bounced the Bruins in Round 1.
Does that mean EA has jinxed the Canucks? To quote Sekeres & Price co-host Blake Price on Friday: “This is criminal trolling. From a company in our backyard no less!”
EA predicted that this year’s Eastern Conference Final will see the Bruins defeat the New York Rangers in the maximum seven games. The Canucks have lost to both the Bruins and Rangers in previous Stanley Cup Final matchups.
As everyone in Vancouver knows by now, the Canucks and the Buffalo Sabres are the two oldest franchises in NHL history to never win the Stanley Cup. Both the Sabres and Canucks entered the league in 1970 and have yet to reach the pinnacle of the sport in the 54 years since.
Unlike Buffalo, at least the Canucks have made this year’s playoffs. Led by Elias Pettersson, Thatcher Demko, Brock Boeser, J.T. Miller, and presumptive Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes, the Canucks won the Pacific Division and enter this year’s playoffs as a 109-point team.
The Canucks will embark on their quest to replicate EA Sports’ findings when they hit the ice for Game 1 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series against the Nashville Predators at Rogers Arena on Sunday.
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