NHL 23 gets it all wrong with season sim of Capitals

NHL 23 has officially launched today. A few days ago they ran a season simulation of all 32 teams. Of course, if you didn’t know already, they picked the Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Stanley Cup. Yuck. Where did they predict the Washington Capitals to finish?

As you can see in the embedded tweet, EA Sports picked the Capitals to finish in fifth place in the Metropolitan Division. That basically screams no playoffs for the Caps unless they snag a wild card spot.

It is similar to what some experts predicted and even though the Caps are 0-2 to start the season they got plenty of time to turn it around. 80 games to be exact.

Ahead of the Caps are the New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, the Penguins, and the New York Rangers. It sounds about right that the Rangers would win the Metropolitan Division.

It sounds a little bit wrong that the Islanders are ahead of the Caps. They’re a scary team yes, but I think the New Jersey Devils are more of an up and comer and will finish ahead of them.

I think the Penguins are ranked too high despite them looking good last night in their season opener. Like the Caps, they’re one of the oldest teams in the league. Sid the Kid ain’t quite a kid anymore.

I think when all is said and done the Caps finish third or fourth in the Metropolitan Division. The Hurricanes should finish second behind the Rangers. Where the Caps finish comes down to that season series against the Penguins.

Both teams are old and the sport is going to be very boring on that dreaded day that Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby hang up their skates. Both are hungry for another Cup.

One of them will finish third and the other should nab the first of those two wild card spots. Anyway I’m about to go play some Chel myself.