Vote Datsyuk for NHL13 cover

Pavel Datsyuk finds himself a 1 seed against T.J. Oshie in the opening round of EA Sports’ cover voting tournament. With some luck, Pasha can become the second Detroit athlete to grace the cover of an EA Sports’ 13 game and some could argue that there’s no better choice — what with his video game moves in real life and all.

PR Coordinator Rick Bowness has a story at DRW with some additional details and facts, which features some pretty kick-ass cover art mocked up by our very good friend @Will_Posthumus. It took me a few viewings to notice that the traditional EA font “13” was replaced by Datsyuk’s sleeve. TRICKY LITTLE DEVIL YOU ARE, WILL.

The top seed has won in each of the prior four match-ups on the bracket. Claude Giroux beat out PK Subban, Scott Hartnell took out Tyler Seguin, Evgeni Malkin defeated Steven Stamkos, and Anze Kopitar beat David Perron…just like he’s about to do in the playoffs.

Upcoming matchups include Henrik Lunqvist/Erik Karlsson, Pekka Rinne/Patrick Sharp (no word yet if they’ll be using a photograph of him spearing someone in the testicles), and Jordan Eberle/John Tavares. Those sixteen players made it out of a preliminary round featuring choices from each team. Just like real life: no one cares about the Blue Jackets.

Click on over to EA’s site, give Pavel a vote or ten, and anxiously await the results when our very own Dangles could grace the cover of your next purchase.