The NHL is arguably the most progressive of the four major North American sports. In some corners, it has to be to in order shed its ‘niche’ label. (Want a team in Florida? Here, have two!) The game of hockey moves fast; why shouldn’t its most popular league?
So try this on for size: Rather than complaining about who’s on the cover of EA Sports’ annual “NHL” video game, go vote for who you want to see. A novel thought.
The process for choosing the “NHL 13” cover boy will go like this:
- Now – April 11: Round of 60: one representative from each team plus two wild card selections advance*
- April 12 – April 22: 32-Player Leaderboard: fans vote for their favorite 16 candidates; top 16 vote-getters advance
- April 24 – June 4: Round of 16: single-elimination playoff bracket decides NHL 13 cover athlete
Online voting is unlimited at NHL.com/CoverVote; tacking the #NHL13Cover hashtag onto your Twitter posts for good measure is encouraged. Here’s a breakdown of the first-round, team-by-team bracket:
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Eastern Conference |
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| Bruins | Tuukka Rask vs. Tyler Seguin | Lightning | Steven Stamkos vs. Victor Hedman |
| Canadiens | P.K. Subban vs. Tomas Plekanec | Maple Leafs | Phil Kessel vs. Tyler Bozak |
| Capitals | John Carlson vs. Brooks Laich | Panthers | Stephen Weiss vs. Tomas Fleischmann |
| Devils | Ilya Kovalchuk vs. Adam Larsson | Penguins | Evgeni Malkin vs. Marc-Andre Fleury |
| Flyers | Claude Giroux vs. Scott Hartnell | Rangers | Henrik Lundqvist vs. Brad Richards |
| Hurricanes | Eric Staal vs. Jeff Skinner | Sabres | Derek Roy vs. Thomas Vanek |
| Islanders | John Tavares vs. Michael Grabner | Senators | Erik Karlsson vs. Jason Spezza |
| Jets | Evander Kane vs. Andrew Ladd | ||
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Western Conference |
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| Avalanche | Matt Duchene vs. Gabriel Landeskog | Kings | Anze Kopitar vs. Drew Doughty |
| Blackhawks | Patrick Sharp vs. Duncan Keith | Oilers | Jordan Eberle vs. Taylor Hall |
| Blue Jackets | R.J. Umberger vs. Ryan Johansen | Predators | David Legwand vs. Pekka Rinne |
| Blues | T.J. Oshie vs. David Perron | Red Wings | Pavel Datsyuk vs. Jimmy Howard |
| Canucks | Henrik Sedin vs. Alex Burrows | Sharks | Logan Couture vs. Brent Burns |
| Coyotes | Shane Doan vs. Keith Yandle | Stars | Loui Eriksson vs. Jamie Benn |
| Ducks | Corey Perry vs. Jonas Hiller | Wild | Mikko Koivu vs. Niklas Backstrom |
| Flames | Mikael Backlund vs. Matt Stajan | ||
