TORONTO, ON - JUNE 12: Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals poses with the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Lester B. Pearson Award, the Art Ross Trophy and the Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy during the 2008 NHL Awards at the at the Elgin Theatre on June 12, 2008 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

The hockey season came to an abrupt end in early June, and was followed by the NHL Awards Ceremony in Toronto. The historic Elgin Theatre on Yonge Street provided for a classy location for the event which was televised in the US and Canada.

Getty Images trotted out a full crew of photographers including me (red carpet and theater shots) along with stringers Claus Andersen (posed trophy winners) and Dave Sandford (winners with families) along with our own fun loving award winner Al Bello.

Getty Images photographer Al Bello poses with Alexander Ovechkin.

Al spent a moment with superstar Alexander Ovechkin mocking our resident hockey loving shooter Jim McIsaac, and then got down to business producing some great portraits of all the nominees and trophy winners.

TORONTO, ON - JUNE 12: Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals poses with the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Lester B. Pearson Award, the Art Ross Trophy and the Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy as photographer Al Bello takes his portrait during the 2008 NHL Awards at the at the Elgin Theatre on June 12, 2008 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images for NHL)

Editor Mike Heiman cranked out the images, and media placement that evening and in the following days exceeded expectations.

(Standing L-R) Jim McIsaac, Christian Petersen, Jamie Sabau, Jessica Tomao (NHL), AJ Messier, Bruce Bennett, Patrick Sutton, Tom Nycz (NHL), (Kneeling L-R) Greg Shamus (Penguins), Dave Sandford, Dave Reginek (Red Wings) 

Bleary-eyed editors Patrick Sutton and Christian Petersen headed back to LA after posting over 200 images on game night from the 2008 Stanley Cup, which concluded in Pittsburgh. In the days ahead, the editors will cull other usable images of the presentation of hockey’s Holy Grail.

The final game was handled with a staff of four and the Getty Images-produced images joined up with shots from NHL Images to provide our clients with a choice of almost 300 images on came night to choose from.

Game night placement was five for five on the first websites we checked as images flowed quickly from the editors out on the wire. Christian pitched in by shooting the start of the post game celebration and sprinting to the computer to help beat the competition. Our images from ice level, as well as from above, gave us the broadest and most varied coverage of the prestentation of Lord Stanley’s Cup and ranked as one of our best hockey coverage efforts in recent years.

Still to come this season is full-crew coverage of the NHL awards and the NHL draft. And after that - the long awaited two month hibernation until training camp begins…

PITTSBURGH - JUNE 04: Andreas Lilja #3 of the Detroit Red Wings celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins in game six of the 2008 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Mellon Arena on June 4, 2008 in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. The Red Wings defeated the Penguins 3-2 to win the Stanley Cup Finals 4 games to 2. (Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images)

PITTSBURGH - JUNE 04: The Detroit Red Wings celebrate after defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins in game six of the 2008 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Mellon Arena on June 4, 2008 in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. The Red Wings defeated the Penguins 3-2 to win the Stanley Cup Finals 4 games to 2. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

PITTSBURGH - JUNE 04: Chris Osgood #30 of the Detroit Red Wings is helped up by Darren McCarty #25 as they celebrate with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins in game six of the 2008 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Mellon Arena on June 4, 2008 in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. The Red Wings defeated the Penguins 3-2 to win the Stanley Cup Finals 4 games to 2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

DETROIT - MAY 26: Fans cheer during the pregame ceremony for game two of the 2008 NHL Stanley Cup Finals between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins at Joe Louis Arena on May 26, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Because of proximity, the Marriott in Pittsburgh is the ideal hotel for Stanley Cup playoff coverage. Situated directly across the street from the distinctively shaped Mellon Arena, it also provided a perfect opportunity to shoot a brief time-lapse multimedia piece on game day.

I placed a Canon 20D and a Tamron 14mm lens on a clamp with a tethered Pocket Wizard set to intervalometer mode. I set the Wizard to shoot a frame every minute for the ten hours I would be away. The camera was set on aperture priority less 2/3 f-stops. This would prevent overexposure as the skies got darker and a 4gb digital card was sufficient to hold the 600 images.

In the early frames I could even see myself dragging my case of equipment up the hill to the arena. As well, the vantage point provided a view of the thousand or so watching the game on a large TV screen in front of the venue. The 500 frames were pared down to 100 images which seemed to be the maximum amount of photographs that would run smoothly in a one minute show.

Three games down and who knows how many more to go. Detroit took the first two and then on to Pittsburgh where the home team triumphed. So we’re in Pittsburgh for games 3 and 4 and another 4-1/2 hour bus ride back to Detroit for game 5.

In this blog, I will dissect the coverage of game three in Pittsburgh. Besides the actual game, I assigned coverage for the pre-game fan scene outside as well as the post game press conference. Usually assigned to those events are the photographers who aren’t doing remote cameras as they need to be turned just prior to the game time and then pulled down afterwards.

Viewing the arena map, each number is delineated below:

1. From a TV booth, Dave Sandford had a 400mm trained on the north end net.

2. Jamie Sabau shot the whole ice from a spot on the concourse with a 300mm and an occasional 70-210.

3. Jim McIsaac had the honor of shooting through milky Plexiglas at ice level. A 70-210mm along with a 16-35 for grab shots covered the action did the job.

4. A camera in the net with a 15mm lens was triggered by Bruce Bennett from his position, #9.

5. Remote: A camera at the base of the boards with a 14mm lens was also triggered by Bruce as this cameras radio receiver was on the same frequency as the netcam enabling both to fire simultaneously.

6. Remote:Jamie Sabau fixed his camera up high on a TV camera pole behind the net to shoot through a 3” opening between glass sections behind the net.

7. Remote: On a high platform, Jim McIsaac placed a 300mm focused on the south end net. The platform also provided Christian Petersen a good vantage point for arena overview images in the opening moments of the game.

8. Dave Sanford took up a concourse position and could shoot the whole ice with a 300mm.

9. Bruce Bennett shot from the visiting runway with a 70-210 and a 16-35.

Anthony Jacobs and Bob Covington had arranged to have the arena ‘wired’ for us. The photographers at rink side had their laptops networked with the editors. At timeouts, digital cards were fed into laptops and sent back to editors to save time. Runners picked up digital cards from other photographers to transport by hand to the editing room, and AJ Messier helped out again at Stanley Cup this year by attending to remotes by pulling cards, changing batteries, and pulling remotes down.

In total, about 6,700 images hit the editors with over 220 making it up to our site within 24 hours of the event.

Images are all from remotes:

1. Dave Sandford’s 400mm from the opposite end of the ice

Dave Sandford/Getty Images

2. Bruce Bennett’s netcam

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

3. Bruce’s Dasher cam with a 14mm from behind the net

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
4. Jamie Sabau’s TV pole cam

Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

5. Jim McIsaac with a 300mm from the opposite end of the ice

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Photo (L-R): Bob Covington, Dave Sandford, Christian Petersen, Patrick Sutton, Jim McIsaac, Bruce Bennett

Yes, it’s another Memorial Day spent on the “Trail to the Stanley Cup.” A few days short of eight months time, and 1,300 games later, the NHL Stanley Cup Finals are set to begin. A classic confrontation between the Pittsburgh Penguins rising stars and the veteran laden Detroit Red Wings. Getty Images headed to Detroit well stocked with its veteran crew. Editors Patrick Sutton and Christian Petersen are joined by photographers Bruce Bennett and Jim McIsaac, along with freelancer Dave Sandford. Added in the mix is Claus Andersen in Detroit and Jamie Sabau for Penguin games.

The joy in this Cup journey is in the travel. A 285 mile trek between cities on an NHL chartered bus will be smooth sailing over the three previous final pairings: Tampa Bay and Calgary, Edmonton and North Carolina, Ottawa and Anaheim. It could only get worse if the NHL expands to Hawaii! No long flights, and no customs or immigration. Just sit back and leave the driving to…Patrick. Shhh. (I haven’t told him he’s driving the bus yet).

So Saturday, the day of game one, is reserved for the designation of our shooting positions, and for setting up net-cam, dasher-cam and rafter-cam. Bob Covington has spent time the previous week wiring the four possible Cup venues and will be on hand to hard wire the ice level shooters. Each photographer will have a laptop by his side to download digital cards which will network directly to the editors thereby saving an enormous amount of time. The NHL is providing runners to hand carry digital cards from shooters on the concourse level. And yes, some day soon the equipment will be available and the wireless will be fast enough to transmit wirelessly from our cameras directly to the editors. That day isn’t far away.

There will be about forty photographers from varied outlets and countries covering each game and the atmosphere provides for healthy and friendly competition to get the best shots. In fact, since the team photographer has his netcam in one net and we occupy the other, our netcam images are pooled with other major wire services.

Lastly, as with most best of seven series at this point in nine month season, media members including our staff will be taking sides. Whoever wins the first game will hopefully sweep.