San Jose Sharks vs. Edmonton Oilers Ice Hockey

Two nights ago I had some unexpected free time in the evening and was looking for something fun to photograph. I realized that the Sharks were playing the Oilers and put in a last minute request for credentials (at 4:30pm which is cutting it a little close). My friends at the Sharks were kind enough to oblige and off I went to fire off a couple thousand frames. While I was there, I realized that I have not photographed professional hockey since the Vancouver Olympics. It was fun to get back into the groove.
 

Antero Nittymaki getting ready for the start of the game.

Dan Boyle getting ready to break out of the defensive zone, rounding the net with the puck.

Solid defense from the Sharks for most of the night (only letting in one goal for the win).

Here you can see the concentration in the eyes of the athletes and the puck just waiting for someone to make a play.

 Ryan Clowe working hard in front of the net, trying to screen their goalie, Nikolai Khabibulin.

Logan Couture, the rookie, has been on fire. He has already scored 18 goals this season. Here he draws a penalty by working hard in the offensive zone...

...and ending up in the net.

Here is a shot of Dany Heatley making a point blank shot on net, but Khabibulin stoned him and kept it out of the net.

Another stop by Khabibulin.

The Sharks finally scored a goal in the second period.

Big Joe Thornton enjoying the game.

I love this shot of Dany Heatley working hard in front of the net.

Here the Sharks score for the second time. You can see the puck hitting the back of the net.
 

Torrey Mitchell flexing the stick to get the most power on his slap shot.

A funny thing happened when I was shooting this game. I shot most of these images with the Canon 1D Mark IV (which shoots 10 pictures per second) but also decided to use the Canon 5D Mark II with a Fisheye lens, like I did at the Winter Olympics. At the beginning of the second break, a gentleman came up to me, a little perplexed, and asked which lens I was using for the close-up shots. I told him about my setup with the Fisheye lens and he told me that he saw and liked my previous wide shots from the Olympics. As I explained to him, there are times when the athletes are right in front of me and I can not photograph them with a long lens (I was using the 70-200mm), so it is fun to try the wide lens to see what I get with that focal length. As you can tell from the image above, it really can pay off. This wide view really makes you feel like you are on the ice with them!

One more thing...Happy holidays everyone!!!