With the Golden Knights reaching the 2018 Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season, it was seen as just the latest example of the long-running animated show and pop culture institution predicting future events.
But Mike Scully, the showrunner for the episode, which was written by David M. Stern, confirmed that the simplest explanation was the true one: It was just a joke.
"If I recall correctly the scene was when they woke up the next morning," Scully told NHL.com. "We were just looking for funny things to have in the hotel room to show that Homer and Ned had a wild night in Vegas. I think there was a tiger in the room. They had stolen a golf cart. And they somehow ended up with the Stanley Cup."
Later in the show, it is revealed that Homer and Ned had married two cocktail waitresses, which of course causes a problem for them because they were both already married.
But the Cup making an appearance in the episode was certainly no accident.
"As a hockey fan any chance I get to sneak a hockey reference in there, I take it," he said.
Scully is a diehard Los Angeles Kings fan, but has been impressed with what he's seen from the Golden Knights.
"I've been loving it this year. I hated that they knocked the Kings out (in the Western Conference First Round), but every time I saw them play, they've been exciting to watch," Scully said.
Scully also wrote the definitive hockey episode of the show's nearly three decades on air, titled "Lisa on Ice," in which siblings Lisa and Bart Simpson play for rival youth teams.
But as for the greatest trophy in all of sports appearing in Las Vegas 19 years before Game 1 of a Stanley Cup Final was held in Sin City, it is just a coincidence. Even if the inspiration for the gag was real.
"The thing I love about the Stanley Cup is it's the only sports trophy that travels. You see it in locations all over the world. And I'm sure I have seen it in Vegas before," Scully said. "The Cup leads an awesome life. It goes on better vacations than I do."
