The EA Sports NHL series has been regarded as not only the best sports games on the market but one of the best games around. The yearly game is constantly improving software, graphics, and gameplay to make the games more realistic and more enjoyable for the gamer.
The game has also done a fine job in selecting the cover athlete over the years. They select a player who is regarded as one of the best and most exciting in the game. They take this player and put a great action shot of him on the cover, concisely displaying what the game holds.
Last year, they began a new way to pick the cover athlete. They let the fans decide.
They had voting online in a bracket format and they let the fans pick who advanced.
And that gave us this cover for NHL 13:
The fans pulled through and the voting system was deemed a success, seeing how Giroux was regarded as one of the best players in the league.
So they tried it again this year with a special feature "Twitter Vote Thursdays" and they put the fans to it again.
The finalists:
Yes, that is Martin Brodeur and Sergei Bobrovsky, duking it out for the honour of being the NHL 14 Cover athlete.
Brodeur beat Anze Kopitar, James van Riemsdyk, and Pavel Datsyuk and Bobrovsky defeated Patrick Sharp, Taylor Hall, and John Tavares.
So they both started out against an underrated superstar who gets overshadowed by his surroundings/where he plays (Kopitar/Sharp), went up against a player who plays in Canada who got a ton of votes from the home fans (JVR/Hall), and finally pulled the upset against that one player who's REALLY good and that everyone loves (Datsyuk/Tavares).
Both are 4 seeds.
Both are goalies who missed the playoffs.
The difference here is, do we go with the young goalie who struggled in the past but was great this year or do we go with the veteran who's wonderful career is coming to an end.
Bobs was sick this year and almost got into the postseason which would have been huge for Columbus and the fans. Brodeur missed a lot of the season and, although the team stunk while he was out, wasn't good enough at the end to push them in.
Here's where it gets interesting though.
Sergei Bobrovsky is a free agent this summer and, although he might stay in Columbus, a lot of teams are going after. As far as I know, there has not been an NHL cover athlete who was on a different team when the game came out. I recall the craziness when Brett Favre was on the cover of Madden as a Packers quarterback even though he was acquired by the Jets during the offseason.
But it gets weirder because, as Puck Daddy noted, SKA Saint Petersburg of the KHL is going after Bobs also. Imagine having a cover athlete with that player not in the league anymore. How can he possibly represent the NHL while playing in the KHL?
It'll definitely be interesting to see.
And in case anyone is wondering about the cover curse, the last goalie who was on the cover (John Vanbiesbrouck of the Florida Panthers in 1997) posted great numbers. 27-19-10 with a 2.29 GAA and a .919 SV% and received the most votes out of any Eastern Conference player for the All Star game.
Personally, I think Marty will got the nod. His career numbers are incredible, he's liked by 29 NHL teams, and his social media has been gathering votes every second.
On the other hand, there's something inside me that wants Bobrovsky to win. He'll finally be "On the Case"
The game has also done a fine job in selecting the cover athlete over the years. They select a player who is regarded as one of the best and most exciting in the game. They take this player and put a great action shot of him on the cover, concisely displaying what the game holds.
Last year, they began a new way to pick the cover athlete. They let the fans decide.
They had voting online in a bracket format and they let the fans pick who advanced.
And that gave us this cover for NHL 13:
So they tried it again this year with a special feature "Twitter Vote Thursdays" and they put the fans to it again.
The finalists:
Brodeur beat Anze Kopitar, James van Riemsdyk, and Pavel Datsyuk and Bobrovsky defeated Patrick Sharp, Taylor Hall, and John Tavares.
So they both started out against an underrated superstar who gets overshadowed by his surroundings/where he plays (Kopitar/Sharp), went up against a player who plays in Canada who got a ton of votes from the home fans (JVR/Hall), and finally pulled the upset against that one player who's REALLY good and that everyone loves (Datsyuk/Tavares).
Both are 4 seeds.
Both are goalies who missed the playoffs.
The difference here is, do we go with the young goalie who struggled in the past but was great this year or do we go with the veteran who's wonderful career is coming to an end.
Bobs was sick this year and almost got into the postseason which would have been huge for Columbus and the fans. Brodeur missed a lot of the season and, although the team stunk while he was out, wasn't good enough at the end to push them in.
Here's where it gets interesting though.
Sergei Bobrovsky is a free agent this summer and, although he might stay in Columbus, a lot of teams are going after. As far as I know, there has not been an NHL cover athlete who was on a different team when the game came out. I recall the craziness when Brett Favre was on the cover of Madden as a Packers quarterback even though he was acquired by the Jets during the offseason.
But it gets weirder because, as Puck Daddy noted, SKA Saint Petersburg of the KHL is going after Bobs also. Imagine having a cover athlete with that player not in the league anymore. How can he possibly represent the NHL while playing in the KHL?
It'll definitely be interesting to see.
And in case anyone is wondering about the cover curse, the last goalie who was on the cover (John Vanbiesbrouck of the Florida Panthers in 1997) posted great numbers. 27-19-10 with a 2.29 GAA and a .919 SV% and received the most votes out of any Eastern Conference player for the All Star game.
Personally, I think Marty will got the nod. His career numbers are incredible, he's liked by 29 NHL teams, and his social media has been gathering votes every second.
On the other hand, there's something inside me that wants Bobrovsky to win. He'll finally be "On the Case"
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