‘What a shot’: The stories behind some of hockey’s most iconic photos from the man who took them

[ad_1] OLD BETHPAGE, New York — Bruce Bennett could have been to extra NHL video games than anybody in historical past, and the 69-year-old’s home affords glimpses into the profession that’s put him rinkside so many instances over greater than 5 many years.

Signed jerseys, sticks and photographs of Wayne Gretzky line the lounge partitions, many inscribed with notes thanking Bennett for his friendship and work. There’s a mannequin Stanley Cup. And a closet stuffed with digital camera lenses, wires and different gear.

Bennett has a lofted workplace over the lounge. A couple of of his images hold framed on its partitions. There’s a bookshelf stuffed with hockey and images books, in addition to a plastic rat that hit him on the top when the Florida Panthers have been celebrating their 2024 Stanley Cup Ultimate win. On the underside shelf, there’s a shot of John Tavares’ first NHL aim.

“What a shot!” the previous New York Islanders captain inscribed on the photograph.

Scotty Bowman coached 2,141 NHL video games. Patrick Marleau performed 1,779. David Poile spent 3,075 video games as a common supervisor, although executives don’t at all times attend each recreation. Lou Lamoriello is closing in on that file with 2,868.

Bennett has photographed greater than 5,000.

“I might do a recreation each different day via a complete season, however I’m too grasping,” Bennett says. “So if there’s 4 video games in 4 nights, chances are high I’m going to take all 4. Don’t need to go away something on the desk.”

As of July 2, when Bennett most not too long ago up to date his statistics, he had been to five,240 NHL video games between the common season and playoffs. Of these, 44 have been Stanley Cup deciders. In case you embrace preseason, he’s been to 328 extra. In case you depend all hockey video games — worldwide, PHWL, junior, exhibitions, and so on. — he was as much as 6,142 over the summer season.

The Islanders offered him with a custom-made No. 5000 jersey when he reached that mark. It’s framed proper above a shelf of toys for his grandchildren.

Now the director of hockey images at Getty Pictures, Bennett was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Lengthy Island. When he was in elementary college, he borrowed his father’s Kodak Instamatic to snap footage on college discipline journeys. “Horrible photographs,” he calls them, however they sparked a ardour.

He first shot a hockey recreation as a 17- or 18-year-old at Madison Sq. Backyard. He didn’t have a press credential, so he took footage from the balcony. Across the identical time, he snuck into the Islanders photograph field and shot the sport. He mailed a number of of his footage to the Hockey Information and requested in the event that they’d be all for utilizing his work. The publication stated sure, which obtained Bennett a images credential and kicked off what has turn out to be a legendary profession — one which has given Bennett a front-row seat to among the largest moments in hockey historical past.

Whether or not they realize it or not, sports activities followers’ lasting recollections of these seminal hockey moments are sometimes seen via Bennett’s lens.

How does he seize them, and what are those that imply probably the most to him?

To provide a way of it, he walked The Athletic via 10 of his favourite photographs, his course of of making the pictures and why he values them.

Varlamov from above <img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5983047 size-large" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220040/GettyImages-1855793192-763x1024.jpg" alt="" width="763" height="1024" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220040/GettyImages-1855793192-763x1024.jpg 763w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220040/GettyImages-1855793192-223x300.jpg 223w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220040/GettyImages-1855793192-1144x1536.jpg 1144w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220040/GettyImages-1855793192-1525x2048.jpg 1525w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220040/GettyImages-1855793192-scaled.jpg 1906w" sizes="(max-width: 763px) 100vw, 763px"/> Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov as seen from above in 2023. To get a shot from above, Bennett has to stroll alongside the world catwalk and fix a distant digital camera into the rafters. Then, whereas capturing a recreation from ice-level, he presses a button on a distant that can set off the rafter digital camera to snap footage.

Strolling above the rink just isn't for the faint of coronary heart, however don’t get fooled by the truth that Bennett does it. “I'm scared s—much less of heights,” he says.

Getty Pictures likes its photographers to be inventive, and Bennett had the concept to set one digital camera above the web with a slower shutter velocity. That means, if a goalie was on prime of the puck throughout a net-front scramble, he’d seem nonetheless with a blur of motion throughout him. Bennett obtained his want with this photograph of New York Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov.

Yzerman within the field <img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5983055 size-full" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220423/GettyImages-57049499-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1711" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220423/GettyImages-57049499-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220423/GettyImages-57049499-300x201.jpg 300w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220423/GettyImages-57049499-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220423/GettyImages-57049499-1536x1027.jpg 1536w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220423/GettyImages-57049499-2048x1369.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px"/> Purple Wings Corridor of Famer Steve Yzerman leans on the boards in 1984. The outdated photograph containers at Nassau Coliseum have been positioned proper between the penalty containers, which allowed Bennett to seize a photograph of the Detroit Purple Wings’ younger Steve Yzerman in 1984. It was an excellent place in some ways: He was shut sufficient to odor the liniment on gamers’ pores and skin and listen to them trash discuss.

There have been drawbacks, too. Bennett obtained hit by loads of pucks flung by gamers attempting to get out of their defensive zone. These days he shoots from the nook of rinks, the place there are 4-by-5-inch holes for digital camera lenses.

Richter and Vanbiesbrouck’s shared jersey <img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5983062 size-full" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220711/GettyImages-73350727-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1694" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220711/GettyImages-73350727-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220711/GettyImages-73350727-300x199.jpg 300w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220711/GettyImages-73350727-1024x678.jpg 1024w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220711/GettyImages-73350727-1536x1017.jpg 1536w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220711/GettyImages-73350727-2048x1355.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px"/> Rangers goalies Mike Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck pose collectively in 1991. The Hockey Information assigned Bennett to take a photograph of New York Rangers goalies Mike Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck, who shared the web within the early Nineteen Nineties. Forward of the shoot, Bennett bought the largest Rangers jersey attainable and reduce the again of it so each might squeeze into it. He remembers feeling bizarre destroying an costly jersey.

“I hope this works,” he thought to himself whereas making the reduce.

Happily, each goalies have been into the concept and fortunately posed for the photograph. Afterward, Bennett didn’t know what to do with the jersey, so he had Richter and Vanbiesbrouck signal it. Now it’s in a body in his front room, matted over a replica of the shot for which it was used.

<img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5983067 size-full" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220912/GettyImages-886208988-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1850" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220912/GettyImages-886208988-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220912/GettyImages-886208988-300x217.jpg 300w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220912/GettyImages-886208988-1024x740.jpg 1024w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220912/GettyImages-886208988-1536x1110.jpg 1536w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09220912/GettyImages-886208988-2048x1480.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px"/> Penguins ahead Patric Hornqvist and Devils goalie Cory Schneider watch the puck enter the web in 2017. Bennett generally places a digital camera into the bottom of the web. He secures it inside a polycarbonate field, then can snap photographs remotely with the identical kind of clicker he makes use of for his rafter pictures. He likes this photograph, which reveals the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Patric Hornqvist scoring on Cory Schneider, as a result of you possibly can see the New Jersey Devils’ emblem on the puck, in addition to the symmetry of the gamers and the scoreboard exhibiting New Jersey was on the penalty kill.

“It’s such an ideal angle,” he says. “To me, it’s slightly cliched at this level. … However whenever you get one, it’s one.”

Crosby’s golden aim <img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5983073 size-full" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221147/GettyImages-97617752-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1719" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221147/GettyImages-97617752-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221147/GettyImages-97617752-300x201.jpg 300w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221147/GettyImages-97617752-1024x687.jpg 1024w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221147/GettyImages-97617752-1536x1031.jpg 1536w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221147/GettyImages-97617752-2048x1375.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px"/> Sidney Crosby celebrates an extra time aim on Ryan Miller in 2010. Earlier than the tip of Olympic gold medal and Stanley Cup-clinching video games, Bennett has to line up on the Zamboni nook, the place he’ll get let onto the ice for the postgame presentation. He hates it.

“Horrible,” he says. “You’re standing there and also you’re trying on the scoreboard. You possibly can’t shoot.”

Bennett had a digital camera arrange within the rafters throughout the 2010 Olympic gold medal recreation between the U.S. and Canada. Throughout extra time, he obtained on his knees so he might lookup on the scoreboard. As Crosby acquired a move from Jarome Iginla, Bennett held down his distant button, hoping the scoreboard monitor was synchronized with real-time motion. Fortunately for him, it was. He obtained the shot he was on the lookout for.

“It’s the second that Canada sighed (its) aid,” he says.

Gainey with the Cup <img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5983083 size-large" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221430/GettyImages-82971119-739x1024.jpg" alt="" width="739" height="1024" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221430/GettyImages-82971119-739x1024.jpg 739w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221430/GettyImages-82971119-216x300.jpg 216w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221430/GettyImages-82971119-1108x1536.jpg 1108w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221430/GettyImages-82971119-1477x2048.jpg 1477w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221430/GettyImages-82971119-scaled.jpg 1847w" sizes="(max-width: 739px) 100vw, 739px"/> Bob Gainey lifts the Stanley Cup in 1979. Bennett discovered himself in a predicament after the Montreal Canadiens beat the Rangers to win the 1979 Stanley Cup in 5 video games. He couldn’t discover his means onto the ice and didn’t know French, so he ran each methods across the rink attempting to determine tips on how to get near the celebration. Finally, he gave up attempting to get on the ice and made his method to the stands. He stood on a chair and snapped photographs as finest he might.

“A pair followers, as an alternative of clapping for his or her hometown, have been holding me up so I might take footage, which was very nice for the Anglophone, silly American,” he says.

He obtained fortunate with a photograph of Corridor of Famer Bob Gainey. It’s an emblem, Bennett says, of the glory of successful the Stanley Cup.

Younger Gretzky <img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5983094 size-full" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221759/GettyImages-56838720-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="2025" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221759/GettyImages-56838720-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221759/GettyImages-56838720-300x237.jpg 300w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221759/GettyImages-56838720-1024x810.jpg 1024w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221759/GettyImages-56838720-1536x1215.jpg 1536w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09221759/GettyImages-56838720-2048x1620.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px"/> Wayne Gretzky stands within the Oilers locker room in 1979. This photograph of Wayne Gretzky is the quilt for the English version of Bennett’s e book, “Hockey’s Best Pictures.” It’s from Gretzky’s last WHA recreation with the Edmonton Oilers. Again then, photographers have been allowed within the locker room after video games, which is how Bennett obtained this shot.

“Highschool shoulder pads,” Bennett says. “Skinny, scrawny man.”

It was the primary well-known photograph he took of Gretzky, who wrote the foreword to “Hockey’s Best Pictures.” Bennett took the lasting picture of Gretzky scoring his 77th aim of the 1981-82 season, breaking Phil Esposito’s file. He doesn’t view that photograph as something particular artistically, nevertheless it captured a second in historical past. A signed copy hangs in Bennett’s front room.

Bennett’s relationship with Gretzky has spanned many years now. Gretzky introduced him alongside because the official photographer of the Ninety 9 All Stars tour, which passed off throughout the 1994-95 lockout, and Bennett shot Gretzky’s fantasy camps, too. That’s the supply of among the memorabilia on his wall.

Bossy’s burning stick <img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5983109 size-large" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09222412/GettyImages-51427987-678x1024.jpg" alt="" width="678" height="1024" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09222412/GettyImages-51427987-678x1024.jpg 678w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09222412/GettyImages-51427987-199x300.jpg 199w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09222412/GettyImages-51427987-1017x1536.jpg 1017w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09222412/GettyImages-51427987-1356x2048.jpg 1356w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09222412/GettyImages-51427987-scaled.jpg 1694w" sizes="(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px"/> The Islanders’ Mike Bossy poses for a portrait in 1980. Bennett staged this image for the Hockey Information within the locker room at Nassau Coliseum. Look carefully and also you’ll discover Bossy remains to be carrying a towel from the showers. To create the picture, Bennett put kerosene on the bottom of the stick after which lit it on hearth.

“We had a bucket of water there, however it will definitely wiped out the cotton after which dissipated by itself,” he says.

Bossy was a part of the Islanders four-peat from 1980 to ’83. That period of hockey got here at time for Bennett.

“I feel it was a second that helped flip my profession a bit,” he says. “Not solely that you simply had a dynasty rising on Lengthy Island, however the truth that I used to be good sufficient or ready sufficient to show off the fan swap in my head and deal with the duty of doing the job.”

Potvin hits Lafleur <img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5983148 size-large" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09225744/GettyImages-82954192-736x1024.jpg" alt="" width="736" height="1024" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09225744/GettyImages-82954192-736x1024.jpg 736w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09225744/GettyImages-82954192-216x300.jpg 216w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09225744/GettyImages-82954192-1103x1536.jpg 1103w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09225744/GettyImages-82954192.jpg 1293w" sizes="(max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px"/> The Islanders’ Denis Potvin upends the Canadiens’ Man Lafleur within the early Nineteen Eighties. This photograph of Denis Potvin hitting Man Lafleur is one in every of Bennett’s early-career favorites.

“It was one of many first finest pictures that I had,” he says.

He says he would have thought-about utilizing it as the quilt photograph for his e book, had it labored horizontally. It’s much like a photograph he took within the 2024 playoffs of Carolina’s Dmitry Orlov hitting the Rangers’ Jonny Brodzinski and leaving him in an analogous place as Lafleur. However, he says, “Slight distinction in Corridor of Fame standing. No offense to Jonny.”

Martinez’s Cup-winning aim <img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5983127 size-full" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09224044/GettyImages-450587830-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1707" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09224044/GettyImages-450587830-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09224044/GettyImages-450587830-300x200.jpg 300w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09224044/GettyImages-450587830-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09224044/GettyImages-450587830-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/12/09224044/GettyImages-450587830-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px"/> The Kings rejoice Alec Martinez’s Cup-winning aim in 2014. When Bennett lectures on sports activities images, he stresses the ability of capturing celebration and dejection in the identical body. That’s precisely what he obtained when Alec Martinez scored on Henrik Lundqvist to win the 2014 Stanley Cup Ultimate.

“It’s gold,” Bennett says. “Lundqvist was a man who, his feelings, even with a masks and every part, you could possibly simply inform by physique language.”

The Kings celebrating so near him added to the impression of the picture, which he took with a distant digital camera positioned within the rafters.

“I’m on the point of be pushed out on the ice, so I’m simply blindly holding that button,” he says.

Greater than two hours earlier than the Rangers recreation Nov. 30 towards Montreal, Bennett is crouched within the bowels of Madison Sq. Backyard, attaching his digital camera into place on the base of the sport web. His plan is to shoot the 1 p.m. Rangers recreation, then take a prepare to UBS Area to take photographs of Islanders-Buffalo Sabres within the night.

Bennett’s proximity to a number of groups within the New York space has at all times allowed him to shoot a number of video games, and the eagerness that carried him as an 18-year-old doesn’t appear to be going wherever.

“It’s exhausting to stroll away,” he says. “It’s like knowledgeable athlete.”

Bennett begins his work days in his workplace trying on the photographs Getty shooters took the evening earlier than. He’ll ship out emails, some complimentary, some constructive and a few sarcastic. He watches NHL Community and can obtain media notes for the subsequent recreation he’s capturing. He’ll word which gamers are arising on milestones so he’s ready to catch the massive moments.

Throughout hockey’s summer season hiatus, Bennett retains himself busy with … images. He enjoys occurring day journeys round Lengthy Island and capturing footage of wildlife. He has one in every of his favorites, an eagle in Centerpoint catching a fish, blown up and framed in his workplace.

Then, when the season begins up, he’s at all times able to go.

“The expression a golfer would say — one nice shot brings you again the subsequent day — that’s how I really feel a few hockey recreation,” he says. “In case you’re not there, you’re not getting it.”