Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place vs. home

Posts tagged ‘Hockey Hall of Fame’

Hockey Hall of Fame, Cathedral of Hockey, Great Hall, Stanley Cup, Toronto, Canada, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, fourteen

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

9 April 2012.

Once, when a wae lad was I, I was a big fan of ice hockey. I used to think being a fan of hockey was synonymous with being Canadian; in time, I was quickly disabused of this naivety with many spotlights illuminating the long thread of racism. Generally, it’s very difficult to follow sports news in this country that avoids hockey news and updates. With unease in place, my return to a city where I lived for seven years included a return to the “Cathedral of Hockey”.

At the corner of Yonge and Front in downtown Toronto is a building formerly used by the Bank of Montreal. The building has found very good use as home to the Hockey Hall of Fame, which does a great job telling stories of small-town origins and what the sport means to people across the country. It’s also a good if slow start to see increasing exposure on black players, Asian players, and the origins and rise of women’s hockey. Under low lighting, a sudden hush floats upon guests inside the Great Hall. The space is filled with trophies and plaques dedicated to its best players. At one end of the space is what many consider the Holy Grail: professional ice hockey’s ultimate trophy, known as the Stanley Cup.

I made the image above on 9 Apr 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/60-sec, f/4.5, ISO400, 24mm focal length (38mm full-frame equivalent). My thanks to the E. family for making my return visit to Toronto possible. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-lKz.

Toronto: finding religion in the Hockey Hall of Fame

The Hockey Hall of Fame is the “Cathedral of Hockey”, a place where fans and followers pay their respects to the “Holy Grail”, one of the most beautiful and storied trophies in North American professional sports – the Stanley Cup.

Since 1993, the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) has resided in an old Bank of Montreal building at the northwest corner of Front Street and Yonge Street in downtown Toronto, Canada. To the uninitiated observer, it might be easy to dismiss the Hall of Fame as no more than a bunch of keepsakes collecting dust in an old building.

The HHOF is more, so much more.

( Click here for images and more )

Stanley Cup, The Great Hall, Hockey Hall of Fame, Cathedral of Hockey, Toronto, Canada, fotoeins.com

The Holy Grail

The Chase for the Holy Grail

It is one of the most difficult championship tournaments to win in professional sports. After an 82-game regular season in what amounts to a seven-month “preseason qualifying tournament”, 16 of 30 teams earn places for the post-season, known as the Stanley Cup playoffs. Through further physical and mental strain, one of the 16 teams endures and wins four best-of-seven rounds; the first to win sixteen games captures the National Hockey League’s championship trophy: the Stanley Cup1.

Inside Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame, a copy of the Stanley Cup stands proud under illumination within The Great Hall.

The Tradition begins …

“I have for some time been thinking, that it would be a good thing if there were a Challenge Cup, which should be held from year to year by the leading hockey club of the Dominion. There does not appear to be any such outward and visible sign of a championship at present, and considering the interest the hockey matches now elicit and the importance of having the games fairly played under generally recognised rules, I am willing to give a Cup that shall be annually held by the winning club.”

– Lord Stanley, March 18, 1892.

An aide, Captain Colville, then in England, was instructed to purchase the gold lined silver bowl standing on an ebony base for ten guineas. This was for ever to be known simply as the Stanley Cup.

There’s little doubt the trophy is what many boys and girls from the hockey-playing world dream of holding up high …

Stanley Cup, The Great Hall, Hockey Hall of Fame, Cathedral of Hockey, Toronto, Canada, fotoeins.com

1 The team with the most points in the regular season wins the Presidents Trophy, which in the Australian/New Zealand vernacular is the “minor premiers”. The team who wins the Stanley Cup is the “major premiers”.

On a self-guided tour of The Hockey Hall of Fame, I made the photo above on 9 Apr 2012 with Canon 450D, 18-55 kit-lens, and the following settings: 1/30s, f/4.5, ISO400, 29mm focal length (46mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-1Xs.