EA Sports' NHL 13 cover vote has now completed two rounds and the final eight players have been revealed as we make our way towards the announcement of the winner during the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas on June 20. Over the next week and a half there will be two voting periods involving two separate matchups. After over 16 millions votes, here are your final eight: In Bracket A will be Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers vs. Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings, along with Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Scott Hartnell of the Philadelphia Flyers. Voting for this bracket begins today and will run through May 17th. Bracket B will feature John Tavares of the New York Islanders against Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings and Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers vs. Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators. Voting for Bracket B starts on May 18th and will end on May 23th. The final four players will be announced on May 24th. Some teams with players in the running have created their own campaigns to garner votes from fans. The Kings and Kopitar released a video last month, while the Islanders have pumped up Tavares' campaign by going old school with some promotional materials,  referencing the great NBA Jam . Boom Shaka Laka! 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

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The New York Islanders skated off with a wild and satisfyingly gritty win in their home finale. Their only regret is they didn't do enough in the first 80 games of the season to make this one meaningful. Michael Grabner scored his second go-ahead goal of the third period with just 46.8 seconds left, John Tavares helped set up two others to reach 50 assists this season, and the Islanders...

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The scene plays out nearly every night in the NHL: The head coach calls a timeout and draws up a play for his team during a critical juncture of the game. But how many times have you seen one of his players grab the marker from the coach and diagram his own play on the whiteboard? That's what New York Islanders star John Tavares did to Coach Jack Capuano with 1 second remaining in their game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night: "OK, Kyle, you're gonna skate out about 5 feet and then Mac, you do a belly slide towards the crease, and then P.A., I'm gonna have you start squawking like a large seagull,  and …" [Tavares grabs pen] "Or I'll just take the faceoff and you guys — represented by these here aggressively drawn arrows — go to the [expletive] net because I'm. Tired. Of. Losing. Jack. Can I call you Jack?" The Islanders' rally would fall short, losing to the Flyers, 3-2. As the Islanders near elimination, the heat on Capuano has grown, with blogs writing things like " you have no idea what you're doing, and that's unfortunate ." This clip will likely be used to further that point, but honestly: Who knows what the dynamic is here? Maybe this is the norm for Tavares and his coach. Dude was the Oshawa Generals' Scholastic Player of the Year in 2007—08; wouldn't you defer to him too? (This may once again be our Jack Capuano Fan Club status clouding our opinion of him. But we just can't quit that loveable slob.) s/t John Edwards for the tip.

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The scene plays out nearly every night in the NHL: The head coach calls a timeout and draws up a play for his team during a critical juncture of the game. But how many times have you seen one of … Continue reading ?

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BOSTON - John Tavares tipped in Matt Moulson's shot for the tiebreaking goal with 4:39 left, Evgeni Nabokov stopped 32 shots, and the New York Islanders snapped a five-game, road-losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Saturday.

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John Tavares probably wishes the Islanders had four more games against the Carolina Hurricanes as they try to make a desperate push for the playoffs/ The Islanders' top scorer notched two goals and added an assist in the Islanders' 4-3 victory on Saturday night that completed New York's four-game season sweep of the Hurricanes.

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No. 1 Star: Henrik/Daniel Sedin, Vancouver Canucks Another night of collecting points for the twins as the Canucks downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2. Each Sedin had four points with Daniel notching a goal and three assists and Henrik chipping in four helpers. The other member of the Sedins line, Alex Burrows, scored twice and Roberto Luongo made 24 saves to improve to 7-0-3 in his last 10 games. No. 2 Star: Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary Flames In a battle of Sutter brothers, Brent bested Darryl as the Flames shutout the Los Angeles Kings 1-0. Mike Cammalleri scored the game's only goal 4:03 into the third period as Calgary moved past the Kings into the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. Kiprusoff recorded his 44th career shutout and fourth of the season with a 28-save night and kept the Kings off the board with this stunning glove save on Mike Richards: No. 3 Star: John Tavares, New York Islanders After winning No. 1 star honors for the month of January, Tavares had been goalless in February until Saturday night when his two-goal, one-assist night helped boost the Islanders over the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3. After tying the game at two early in the second period, Tavares' second of the night 38 seconds into the third period stood as the game winner. The win gave the Islanders their first ever season sweep over the Hartford/Carolina franchise.

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UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- For the hottest NHL player in the month of January, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin garnered much publicity -- and rightfully so -- for his 12 goal, 16 point performance in the opening 31 days of the … Continue reading ?

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UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- For the hottest NHL player in the month of January, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin garnered much publicity -- and rightfully so -- for his 12 goal, 16 point performance in the opening 31 days of the … Continue reading ?

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UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- For the hottest NHL player in the month of January, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin garnered much publicity -- and rightfully so -- for his 12 goal, 16 point performance in the opening 31 days of the … Continue reading ?

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