The field of 64 just got cut down in half, leaving 32 NHLers vying for your votes to be on the cover of NHL 14. Each team had one candidate advance, plus two wild card candidates (Joe Thornton and James van Riemsdyk) were added to the mix. If you want to place your vote, click here to cast your ballot. The top 16 vote-getters will advance to the next round.

The rest of the schedule:

• 32-Player Leaderboard (April 29 – May 5): Fans vote for their favorite 16 candidates; top 16 vote-getters advance.
• 16-player Bracket (May 6 – May 26): Weekly round-by-round, single-elimination playoff bracket decides finalists.
• The Finals (May 27- June 2): Winner takes the NHL 14 Cover.

Alright so the playoffs are set to begin tomorrow night, so we put all 16 teams through the ringer in NHL 13 and here’s how it fared:

Round 1: In the Western Conference, Chicago over Minnesota 4-2, Detroit over Anaheim 4-2, Kings over the Blues 4-2 and it took 7 games for San Jose to finish off Vancouver, 4-3. In the East, Pittsburgh over the Islanders 4-2, Canadiens over the Sens 4-2, Rangers over the Capitals 4-1 and apologizes to all the Leafs fans, but Boston handled the Leafs 4-2.

Round 2: The second round saw some sweeps, with the Blackhawks shutting out the Redwings and the Penguins sweeping the Rangers. Montreal beat Boston 4-1, and the Kings beat the Sharks in 7.

Semi-finals: In another 7-game Western series, the Kings defeated the Blackhawks, and in the East, the Penguins handled the Canadiens with ease 4-2.

Stanley Cup: It came down to the Pittsburgh Penguins and the L.A. Kings, and Pittsburgh had a 2-1 lead, when all of a sudden Sidney Crosby got a fractured ankle and was shelved for the rest of the Stanley Cup finals. Could Pittsburgh overcome and still win the Stanley Cup?

Indeed. The Pittsburgh Penguins are your Stanley Cup Champs, and here are your final stats:

Goalie stats:

The final playoff tree (click to enlarge):