Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron is having himself quite the Tuesday.
Bergeron is likely proudest of winning the second Selke Trophy of his career and the NHL Foundation Player Award for the 2013-14 season, yet he also won the fan vote to become the cover athlete for EA Sports’ upcoming video game “NHL 15.” Bergeron edged Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban in the voting, which often took over Twitter as fans and team feeds barraged social media promoting the process.
“Being featured on the cover of NHL 15 is a dream come true,” Bergeron said. “The fact that the cover is selected entirely by fans is an incredible feeling. The passion and support from hockey fans, especially Bruins fans, is unlike any other sport and I’m so grateful to everyone who voted for me.”
“NHL 15" is the first hockey video game to make the jump to the Xbox One and Playstation 4. The game launches on those consoles plus Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in North America on Sept. 9 and in Europe on Sept. 12.
Perhaps that greater processing power will open up door for the simulation to more accurately capture the nuances that make Bergeron such a great two-way forward in reality?
Deep down, the biggest question is: how much will this nod soup up his player rating? He generally hovers in the high-80s, so maybe this will bump him into the 90’s?
Martin Brodeur was the video game series’ most recent cover athlete in the “NHL 14" iteration. He was rated in the 85 range, so maybe the days of the cover athlete getting a huge boost are over ...