NHL 13 Cover Athlete Competition Advances to First Half of Elite Eight Stage

The excessively long process to determine the cover athlete for NHL 13 – which began in late March and won’t end until June 20 – continues with the tournament now down to the final eight. Two of the four matchups are available to vote on through next Thursday and then on Friday the other two will open up for a week. Head to the NHL.com cover vote page to take part.

All higher seeds advanced from the previous round with the exception of a minor upset of a five seed upset over a four. Claude Giroux vs Anze Kopitar and Scott Hartnell vs Evgeni Malkin are the active pairings while late next week Pavel Datsyuk vs John Tavares and Henrik Lundquist vs Pekka Rinne will go live for the right to advance to the final four.