NHL: Shooting My 1st Finals — ‘Hawks Capture Cup!

Had the opportunity to shoot my first Stanley Cup Finals game and it just happened to be a clincher…Game 6, Chicago Blackhawks and the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wachovia Center. What a week it’s been, from the Cotto fight at Yankee Stadium, landing the cover of Boxing News with a shot from the fight, and now the Stanley Cup!

I arrived at the Wachovia Center (after a much longer than expected, weather delayed drive) picked up my credential and headed for the photo filing room for a mandatory photog meeting with two minutes to spare.

The meeting regarding the post-game was interesting, each organization was permitted one on-ice shooter in the case of a Chicago victory. I was chosen as our organizations shooter. So in the case of Chicago leading in the 3rd, I would have to leave my shooting hole and head to the zamboni entrance to prepare for the trophy presentations, meaning I would miss the final seconds tick off the clock.

After the meeting we did a walkthrough of the arena from my shooting spot (we were lucky to be assigned one of the six on ice photo holes) to the zamboni entrance, so I knew where I was headed at the end of the game. Also discussed workflow with my editor and runner, as well as end of game scenarios (thankfully we did as it changed up quite a bit at the end).

Anyway onto the game. The building was electric, by far the loudest I’ve been in for the start of a hockey game and it was a sea of Flyer orange.

The Hawks got on the board first, but the Flyers knotted it at 1 with a Scott Hartnell deflection with less than a minute remaining in the period.

The game remained a pretty tight knit affair with some good hitting on the boards by Chris Pronger, who was great during the playoffs, a few saves and some scoring chances. Here are a few selects from game action.

The Blackhawks led 3-2 with 5 minutes remaining, so I made my way to the zamboni entrance to wait out the final minutes for the on-ice celebration. So what does one do when trapped in the zamboni tunnel while the action is on the ice? Why take pictures of the Flyers on-ice team watching in desperation the final minutes of the season ticking away. That is until the Flyers scored to tie the game at 3. These actually turned out to be decent shots, as they captured the momentum swing from a different point of view.


With the game tied at 3, photographers scrambled to figure out what they should do, some ran back to their spots to shoot action, others stayed in case the Blackhawks scored in the last couple minutes. We had gone over the scenario in our pre-game walkthrough. My editor Jerry Lai went to the ice to shoot action when I left, so we were covered there, meaning I was staying put. Problem for me, I couldn’t shoot the OT session because I would have to remain by the zamboni entrance in case the Hawks won. We all were discussing how long we might be there, hoping it ended quickly in OT (as a hockey fan I love a long overtime, but not when I’m stuck in a tunnel). Fortunately for us, it didn’t take too long at all.

Just over 4 minutes into OT, Patrick Kane slid one between the legs of Michael Leighton from a pretty bad angle. While none of us could see the goal from the tunnel, we couldn’t tell from crowd reaction the game was over either, as I found out later the only two people in the arena who knew the game was over were Kane and Leighton. Next thing you know they were telling us it was “go time” and we made are way onto the ice for the trophy presentation.

Only a few photogs are allowed to roam the ice, the rest of us are restricted to a carpet along the boards until the team photo, then we are free to go, as a result it was tough to make a good picture of Toews (or anyone else for that matter) hoisting the cup. I did manage to land a good one of him with champagne after the team picture though (main blog image), and several of him with his 2nd time with the cup. Here’s a few of my favorites from my time on the ice.

Of course what take of the Stanley Cup win would be complete without the obligatory team photo around the cup. Shooting this was tough, it was a mad scramble to get to the ice, watching photographers running with all their gear on the ice is quite humorous.

Here’s a look at the full edited take from my archives…enjoy!

View Slideshow Here

As a big hockey fan, my first Cup Finals game was an experience I won’t soon forget. It’s tough shooting the ceremony, and it’s a scramble to make a picture, but after you can roam the ice, you have plenty of time to make a good image. I was a bit lucky to capture Toews on ice with champagne, and even luckier to be the only one by him (I think). I did have a few nice placements (ESPN.com and Yahoo.com), especially considering the amount of talented photogs there, after the game as well.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 13th, 2010 at 1:00 pm and is filed under NHL Photography and tagged with Antti Niemi, Chicago Blackhawks, Chris Pronger, Daniel Briere, Gary Bettman, Hockey Photography, Jonathan Toews, Kris Versteeg, National Hockey League, NHL, NHL Photography, NHL Stock Photography, Philadelphia Flyers, Scott Hartnell, Stanley Cup, Stanley Cup Finals, Troy Brouwer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.