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 affords glimpses into the profession that’s put him rinkside so many occasions over greater than 5 a long time.
Signed jerseys, sticks and pictures 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 filled with digicam lenses, wires and different gear.
Bennett has a lofted workplace over the lounge. A couple of of his pictures hold framed on its partitions. There’s a bookshelf filled with hockey and pictures 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 purpose.
“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 all the time attend each recreation. Lou Lamoriello is closing in on that document with 2,868.
Bennett has photographed greater than 5,000.
“I might do a recreation each different day by way of a complete 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 go away something on the desk.”
As of July 2, when Bennett most lately 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. For those who embody preseason, he’s been to 328 extra. For those who 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 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 Photographs, 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 photos on college discipline journeys. “Horrible pictures,” 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 identical time, he snuck into the Islanders photograph field and shot the sport. He mailed a couple of of his photos to the Hockey Information and requested in the event that they’d be concerned with utilizing his work. The publication stated sure, which received Bennett a pictures credential and kicked off what has change into a legendary profession — one which has given Bennett a front-row seat to among the greatest 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 by way of Bennett’s lens.
How does he seize them, and what are those that imply essentially the most to him?
To present a way of it, he walked The Athletic by way of 10 of his favourite pictures, his course of of making the photographs 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 world catwalk and connect a distant digicam into the rafters. Then, whereas capturing a recreation from ice-level, he presses a button on a distant that may set off the rafter digicam to snap photos.
Strolling above the rink is just not 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 Photographs likes its photographers to be inventive, and Bennett had the concept to set one digicam above the online with a slower shutter pace. That method, if a goalie was on high of the puck throughout a net-front scramble, he’d seem nonetheless with a blur of motion throughout him. Bennett received 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 have 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 really perfect place in some ways: He was shut sufficient to odor the liniment on gamers’ pores and skin and listen to them trash speak.
There have been drawbacks, too. Bennett received 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 digicam 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 online within the early Nineties. Forward of the shoot, Bennett bought the most important Rangers jersey doable and lower 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 lower.
Thankfully, 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 lounge, 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 online in 2017.
Bennett typically places a digicam into the bottom of the online. He secures it inside a polycarbonate field, then can snap pictures remotely with the identical sort of clicker he makes use of for his rafter photographs. He likes this photograph, which reveals the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Patric Hornqvist scoring on Cory Schneider, as a result of you may see the New Jersey Devils’ brand on the puck, in addition to the symmetry of the gamers and the scoreboard displaying New Jersey was on the penalty kill.
“It’s such a fantastic angle,” he says. “To me, it’s a bit of cliched at this level. … However if you get a great one, it’s a great one.”
Crosby’s golden purpose
Sidney Crosby celebrates an additional time purpose on Ryan Miller in 2010.
Earlier than the top 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’ll be able to’t shoot.”
Bennett had a digicam arrange within the rafters through the 2010 Olympic gold medal recreation between the U.S. and Canada. Throughout additional time, he received on his knees so he might lookup on the scoreboard. As Crosby acquired a cross 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 received the shot he was searching for.
“It’s the second that Canada sighed (its) aid,” 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 right way to get near the celebration. Ultimately, he gave up attempting to get on the ice and made his option to the stands. He stood on a chair and snapped pictures as greatest he might.
“A pair followers, as a substitute of clapping for his or her hometown, have been holding me up so I might take photos, which was very nice for the Anglophone, silly American,” he says.
He received fortunate with a photograph of Corridor of Famer Bob Gainey. It’s an emblem, Bennett says, of the glory of profitable 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 e-book, “Hockey’s Best Images.” It’s from Gretzky’s closing WHA recreation with the Edmonton Oilers. Again then, photographers have been allowed within the locker room after video games, which is how Bennett received 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 Images.” Bennett took the lasting picture of Gretzky scoring his 77th purpose of the 1981-82 season, breaking Phil Esposito’s document. He doesn’t view that photograph as something particular artistically, but it surely captured a second in historical past. A signed copy hangs in Bennett’s lounge.
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 came about through 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
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 continues 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 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 a great 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 in a position sufficient to show off the fan change in my head and deal with the duty of doing the job.”
Potvin hits Lafleur
The Islanders’ Denis Potvin upends the Canadiens’ Man Lafleur within the early Eighties.
This photograph of Denis Potvin hitting Man Lafleur is considered one of Bennett’s early-career favorites.
“It was one of many first greatest photographs that I had,” he says.
He says he would have thought of utilizing it as the quilt photograph for his e-book, had it labored horizontally. It’s just 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 purpose
The Kings have a good time Alec Martinez’s Cup-winning purpose in 2014.
When Bennett lectures on sports activities pictures, he stresses the ability of capturing celebration and dejection in the identical body. That’s precisely what he received 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 thing, you can simply inform by physique language.”
The Kings celebrating so near him added to the influence of the picture, which he took with a distant digicam 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 digicam 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 Enviornment to take pictures 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 a lot 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 pictures 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 word which gamers are arising on milestones so he’s ready to catch the large moments.
Throughout hockey’s summer season hiatus, Bennett retains himself busy with … pictures. He enjoys occurring day journeys round Lengthy Island and capturing photos of wildlife. He has considered one 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 couple of hockey recreation,” he says. “For those who’re not there, you’re not getting it.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Images: Peter Baugh / The Athletic; Bruce Bennett / Getty Photographs)