OLD BETHPAGE, New York — Bruce Bennett might have been to extra NHL video games than anybody in historical past, and the 69-year-old’s home provides glimpses into the profession that’s put him rinkside so many occasions over greater than 5 a long time.
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 tools.
Bennett has a lofted workplace over the lounge. Just a few of his images grasp framed on its partitions. There’s a bookshelf stuffed with hockey and pictures books, in addition to a plastic rat that hit him on the pinnacle when the Florida Panthers had been celebrating their 2024 Stanley Cup Ultimate win. On the underside shelf, there’s a shot of John Tavares’ first NHL objective.
“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 basic supervisor, although executives don’t all the time attend each recreation. Lou Lamoriello is closing in on that file with 2,868.
Bennett has photographed greater than 5,000.
“I may do a recreation each different day via a whole season, however I’m too grasping,” Bennett says. “So if there’s 4 video games in 4 nights, likelihood is I’m going to take all 4. Don’t wish to depart 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 rely all hockey video games — worldwide, PHWL, junior, exhibitions, and so forth. — he was as much as 6,142 over the summer time.
The Islanders offered him with a personalized 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 pictures at Getty Photos, Bennett was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Lengthy Island. When he was in elementary faculty, he borrowed his father’s Kodak Instamatic to snap photos on faculty subject 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 photos from the balcony. Across the similar time, he snuck into the Islanders photograph field and shot the sport. He mailed a number of of his photos to the Hockey Information and requested in the event that they’d be keen on utilizing his work. The publication stated sure, which acquired Bennett a pictures credential and kicked off what has turn into a legendary profession — one which has given Bennett a front-row seat to a few of the largest moments in hockey historical past.
Whether or not they understand it or not, sports activities followers’ lasting reminiscences 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 offer 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
Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov as seen from above in 2023.
To get a shot from above, Bennett has to stroll alongside the sector catwalk and fasten a distant digital camera into the rafters. Then, whereas capturing a recreation from ice-level, he presses a button on a distant that may set off the rafter digital camera to snap photos.
Strolling above the rink 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 Photos likes its photographers to be artistic, and Bennett had the concept to set one digital camera above the web with a slower shutter pace. That method, 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 acquired his want with this photograph of New York Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov.
Yzerman within the field
Crimson Wings Corridor of Famer Steve Yzerman leans on the boards in 1984.
The previous photograph bins at Nassau Coliseum had been positioned proper between the penalty bins, which allowed Bennett to seize a photograph of the Detroit Crimson Wings’ younger Steve Yzerman in 1984. It was a perfect place in some ways: He was shut sufficient to scent the liniment on gamers’ pores and skin and listen to them trash discuss.
There have been drawbacks, too. Bennett acquired 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
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 most important Rangers jersey attainable and lower the again of it so each may squeeze into it. He remembers feeling bizarre destroying an costly jersey.
“I hope this works,” he thought to himself whereas making the lower.
Luckily, each goalies had 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 duplicate of the shot for which it was used.
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 sort of clicker he makes use of for his rafter pictures. He likes this photograph, which exhibits the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Patric Hornqvist scoring on Cory Schneider, as a result of you may 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 incredible angle,” he says. “To me, it’s a bit cliched at this level. … However whenever you get an excellent one, it’s an excellent one.”
Crosby’s golden objective
Sidney Crosby celebrates an extra time objective 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 wanting on the scoreboard. You’ll be able to’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 acquired on his knees so he may search for on the scoreboard. As Crosby obtained a go 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 acquired the shot he was searching for.
“It’s the second that Canada sighed (its) reduction,” he says.
Gainey with the Cup
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 method onto the ice and didn’t know French, so he ran each methods across the rink attempting to determine the best way to get near the celebration. Finally, he gave up attempting to get on the ice and made his strategy to the stands. He stood on a chair and snapped photographs as greatest he may.
“A pair followers, as a substitute of clapping for his or her hometown, had been holding me up so I may take photos, which was very nice for the Anglophone, silly American,” he says.
He acquired 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
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 guide, “Hockey’s Best Pictures.” It’s from Gretzky’s closing WHA recreation with the Edmonton Oilers. Again then, photographers had been allowed within the locker room after video games, which is how Bennett acquired 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 objective of the 1981-82 season, breaking Phil Esposito’s file. He doesn’t view that photograph as something particular artistically, however it captured a second in historical past. A signed copy hangs in Bennett’s front room.
Bennett’s relationship with Gretzky has spanned a long time now. Gretzky introduced him alongside because the official photographer of the Ninety 9 All Stars tour, which befell throughout the 1994-95 lockout, and Bennett shot Gretzky’s fantasy camps, too. That’s the supply of a few of the memorabilia on his wall.
Bossy’s burning stick
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 intently and also you’ll discover Bossy remains to be sporting a towel from the showers. To create the picture, Bennett put kerosene on the bottom of the stick after which lit it on fireplace.
“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 an excellent time for Bennett.
“I feel it was a second that helped flip my profession a bit,” he says. “Not solely that you just 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 give attention to the duty of doing the job.”
Potvin hits Lafleur
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 greatest pictures that I had,” he says.
He says he would have thought-about utilizing it as the quilt photograph for his guide, 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 the same place as Lafleur. However, he says, “Slight distinction in Corridor of Fame standing. No offense to Jonny.”
Martinez’s Cup-winning objective
The Kings have a good time Alec Martinez’s Cup-winning objective in 2014.
When Bennett lectures on sports activities pictures, he stresses the facility of capturing celebration and dejection in the identical body. That’s precisely what he acquired 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 the whole lot, you possibly can simply inform by physique language.”
The Kings celebrating so near him added to the affect 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 in opposition to 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 practice 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 all the time allowed him to shoot plenty of video games, and the eagerness that carried him as an 18-year-old doesn’t appear to be going anyplace.
“It’s laborious to stroll away,” he says. “It’s like an expert athlete.”
Bennett begins his work days in his workplace wanting on the photographs Getty shooters took the night time 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 notice which gamers are developing on milestones so he’s ready to catch the large moments.
Throughout hockey’s summer time hiatus, Bennett retains himself busy with … pictures. He enjoys occurring day journeys round Lengthy Island and capturing photos 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 all the time 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.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Pictures: Peter Baugh / The Athletic; Bruce Bennett / Getty Photos)
