Here I am placing a remote camera in the net.
Dave Sanford is setting up a remote camera in the stands.
Jim McIsaac with the Stanley Cup shows off how proud he is of his four time Cup winning New York Islanders.
It’s not like I didn’t know that the Stanley Cup Final was a mere week away or so. I can only equate its arrival to the knowledge that the storm is on the horizon but you don’t know exactly when it’s coming or what category it will be when it arrives.
On Tuesday evening, May 22, the final bracket was set up with the Anaheim Ducks taking on the waiting Ottawa Senators. The mistake was leaving the Blackberry on through the night for important calls, along with vibrate for emails. No calls after midnight, but I felt like I had the “magic fingers” machine working all night. The email total on Wednesday-Friday was an all time high and the complication was that we are planning our NHL Draft coverage along with NHL Awards coverage - both happen in June.
Luckily, the NHL scheduled five days off before the final was to begin so there was enough planning and scheduling room. A conference call with our crew was set for Thursday and I prepared my notes and travel arrangements and laid the equipment out to clean and take down serial numbers. I also had the luxury of a few extra days to look over everything and second guess my equipment selection of a dozen times.
The final tally was two equipment bags - 50 lbs each, and a clothing bag - 50 lbs. Not altogether bad considering that the journey could stretch 17 days and over 15,000 miles. Each photographer in the crew needs to be prepared with enough equipment to shoot and have one remote camera. Judging by recent history, we could be in for a long series. The last three Cup finals went the full seven games, an included equally inconvenient cities paired up including Edmonton with Raleigh and Tampa Bay with Calgary.
Neither Ottawa or Anaheim has ever hoisted the holy grail, and a few story lines emerged in what could make for an interesting Final. The Ducks have been to the final just once and the lost out to New Jersey in 2003. This latest incarnation of a NHL team in Ottawa has never been to the Finals, but Ottawa is the birthplace of the Stanley Cup and the spring classic returns there after an 80-year absence. Classy 14-year old veteran Teemu Selanne, of Anaheim via Finland, has never won a Cup, and Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa via Sweden, seeks to be the first European born captain to win a Cup.
As a member of the Cup finalist Edmonton Oilers last year, Chris Pronger again seeks to win the trophy, this time with the Ducks. The Ducks line-up also features a brother combination, Scott and Rob Niedermayer.
And yet, much of America it seems has little interest in the NHL, and with the first two games on Versus, many won’t notice. Most of Canada will be rooting for Ottawa and the real hockey fans will be on board when the series starts. NBC will pick up three games through till the series conclusion.
More importantly than the high priced on ice talent, let’s talk about the Getty Images line-up. Five photographers and three editors will handle the game and entertainment aspect in Anaheim. Experienced hockey shooters Bruce Bennett (32), Jeff Gross (7) and Jim McIsaac (15) are joined by stringer Dave Sandford (13) for a total of 67 years of experience. I guess I skew the average a bit!
The highly experienced editing team of Rebecca Butala and Christian Petersen will be joined by editor Patrick Sutton and stringer John Heller handling the entertainment needs in Anaheim. In Ottawa, local stringer Phil MacCallum will join the crew of shooters.
Al Bello/Getty Images
It’s been just a little over two days since the end of the fight that was supposed to save boxing and I still don’t know what to think about it.
First off, I don’t think boxing needs saving, just maybe a better way of selling itself to the mainstream again (a lovable fighter ala Oscar De La Hoya in his prime) and more boxers who want to showcase their skills rather than just fatten their pockets (the opposite of Floyd Mayweather Jr.).
Al Bello/Getty Images
Al Bello/Getty Images
Secondly, the whole event Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas seemed fixed in a WWE sort of way. From the press tour, to the reality show, to the father/trainer plot lines, to the hordes of celebrities in the seats, the event didn’t feel real.
The fans wanted blood and all they got was a little baby cut over Oscar’s eye.
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It got bad at times as Oscar went nearly four rounds in the middle of the fight without throwing a punch. Makes it hard to see how he is sitting around still wondering why he didn’t win the fight. With both pugilists, there was never that sense of urgency or the true sense that these two fighters wanted to literally kill each other in the ring. This is the image that the UFC has become so successful at selling recently and why it has been trumping boxing in pay-per-view buys the last couple years.
Of course a lot of the hatred in sports is just to liven up the games and give the talking heads something to yap about leading up to the event. But this fight took it to a whole new level by starting publicizing the fight nearly six months before it took place.
Boxing “purists” wanted this fight to be a memorable one but the fact that neither boxer wanted to make a mistake and settled on the hope that they would win by decision rather than a knockout left many wanting more. There is a great chance it will happen and I hope so as well and both fighters realize the potential a true bloodbath could bring to the sport.
I guess the best way to describe the night would to compare it to going to a great club, sitting in the VIP section with no lines but the bar didn’t serve alcohol.
Many factors of the night were spot on, but we all wanted more and boxing had the chance to deliver, but to a degree failed.
Al Bello/Getty Images