EA Sports NHL 13 Round 1 cover vote ends; Round of 32 begins
Two weeks ago EA Sports unveiled it's NHL 13 cover tournament featuring 60 NHLers vying for the honor of being the face of the game when its latest edition drops in September. Some players involved, such as Scott Hartnell, David Perron and Jonas Hiller did their own campaigning to fans via Twitter and YouTube.
Round 1, which featured teammate versus teammate, has come to an end and now the 60 players have been whittled down to 32: 30 winners from each of the pairings plus two wild cards selected by EA Sports. According to EA, over 10 million votes were cast.
Who made the top 32? Find out after the jump.
Here are the Eastern Conference winners...
Bruins: Tyler Seguin
Canadiens: P.K. Subban
Capitals: Brooks Laich
Devils: Ilya Kovalchuk
Flyers: Claude Giroux
Hurricanes: Jeff Skinner
Islanders: John Tavares
Jets: Evander Kane
Lightning: Steven Stamkos
Maple Leafs: Phil Kessel
Panthers: Stephen Weiss
Penguins: Evgeni Malkin
Rangers: Henrik Lundqvist
Sabres: Thomas Vanek
Senators: Erik Karlsson
...and those moving on the Western Conference:
Avalanche: Matt Duchene
Blackhawks: Patrick Sharp
Blue Jackets: R.J. Umberger
Blues: T.J. Oshie
Canucks: Henrik Sedin
Coyotes: Shane Doan
Ducks: Corey Perry
Flames: Mikael Backlund
Kings: Anze Kopitar
Oilers: Jordan Eberle
Predators: Pekka Rinne
Red Wings: Pavel Datsyuk
Sharks: Logan Couture
Stars: Jamie Benn
Wild: Mikko Koivu
Wild Cards: Scott Hartnell, David Perron
Round 2, beginning today and running through April 22, will be a straight leaderboard where the top 16 vote getters will move on to the next round. Once the 16 finalists are announced, things move into a round-by-round bracket-style tournament until two remain and the winner is announced at the NHL Awards show on June 20.
Voting will take place at NHL.com/CoverVote and fans can do so an unlimited number of times. A Twitter hashtag, #NHL13Cover, will also track the cover athlete tournament discussion. Updates and other content will also show up on the EA SPORTS NHL Facebook page.
Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy
