PhotoBlog - hockey

Photo and Text by Kamran Jebreili / AP

Ice hockey would seem a tough sell in the Gulf, where temperatures routinely reach 104 degrees Fahrenheit for half the year and sand dunes far outnumber indoor ice rinks, but a growing number of Emirati men and women are taking to the ice. Emiratis are inspired to take up the sport by an introduction to NHL games on cable television and the novelty of playing a winter sport in a desert region.

New Jersey Devil Travis Zajac celebrates goal

The New Jersey Devils defeated the Florida Panthers 4-0, tying their first-round series of the Stanley Cup quarterfinals at 2-all.

Travis Zajac made it a three-goal game from between the circles at 3:35 and Kovalchuk closed out the scoring on a power-play shot from the left circle.

msnbc.com news services report from YAROSLAVL, Russia:

"Tears on the ice," Russia's popular Tvoi Den newspaper said on its front page under a picture of the squad on the ice. "Yet another terrible air crash has shaken Russia," it said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was due to speak on Thursday at a political conference taking place at the club's stadium, expressed condolences to the relatives of the victims.

"Lokomotiv fans are grieving, the whole country is grieving," said Medvedev, who visited the crash site Thursday. Read the full story.

Explore Vancouver hockey riots in 360-degree video

By Meredith Birkett

More than 100 people were injured and dozens arrested when rioters swept through downtown Vancouver after the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final on June 15.

Ryan Whitehead and his colleague Eamon Sallam from northstudio360 were in the crowd to capture 360-degree video. In late May, they had captured a celebratory crowd during the western conference finals against the San Jose Sharks, so they wanted to capitalize on that viral success during the Stanley Cup finals. But it was a very different experience. “We got some stuff when Vancouver was in a good mood. Then things got really weird,” Whitehead said.

Courtesy of Ryan Whitehead / northStudio360

Cameraman Eamon Sallam navigates the rioting crowd in Vancouver, B.C., with a 360 video camera, after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the Boston Bruins.

Whitehead won’t give many details about the camera setup in the 360 rig. But there are five video cameras, each recording a different angle. Having done 360 video for couple years, they are constantly changing and experimenting with the device. To steady the camera, they are using a monopod with weights at the bottom. They have five FireWire cables hooked to a laptop in a backpack, recording the video streams simultaneously. Back in the office, they stitch the streams together to create the interactive, 360 experience.

To navigate through the crowd, Whitehead and Sallam kept the camera low and walked into the center of the scene, then elevated the rig to capture video for a few minutes. When they started getting looks from the crowd around them, they’d move on. Whitehead said people were “kind of like moths to a fire. Everyone wants to come up and talk.” Whitehead helped cameraman Sallam by keeping the crowd at bay. “I was pretty much like a bouncer for a bar,” Whitehead said. Explore the video they captured, below.

The mob mentality turned dark for the duo when a few people started saying the two were with a Boston news crew, and aggressively asking if they were sharing the video with the cops. Suddenly, 10 to 20 people were staring at them, Whitehead said. The northstudio360 team left the scene quickly.

Whitehead is getting attention for the video from media organizations around North America. It’s free advertising for his company, which typically does work in much quieter scenarios, such as aerial tours for real estate firms, or virtual tours for venues.

See more Photoblogs from the Stanley Cup and riots:

'Why destroy your own city?' Rioters run wild in Vancouver after Stanley Cup loss

Scenes from Game 7 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals

Amorous protestors, lost in the heat of Vancouver riots

Jun

2011

12:49pm, EDT

A couple kisses while police walk in the streets during riots following the Stanley Cup finals in Vancouver, Canada, on Wednesday, June 15. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks, lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Amorous protestors, lost in the heat of Vancouver riots

By Jonathan Woods, msnbc.com

When one of my colleagues alerted me to this image by retweeting it this morning, my gut instinct was to shout "No way! That's fake!" But minutes later we discovered that the image was shot by Getty Images photographer Rich Lam.

I was beside myself.

The "too-good-to-be-true" element of this photo is the juxtaposition of the riot cops and the couple who made a bed out of the littered street following last nights' Stanley Cup Playoffs in Vancouver.

We've got an interview with Lam coming up around 2pm ET to find out just what was going on that led to this photo. Check back in a couple hours.

UPDATE: 6/16/2011, 2:20pm ET -- I just had a conversation with Rich about this image.

After shooting the final game for Getty Images, Rich Lam headed to the streets to photograph the protests.

“We were in front of the bay where looting and burning was taking place,” he said. And that’s when it happened. From dogs to horses, tear gas to pepper spray, “it was just mayhem.”

Police started pushing everyone out of the streets. At one point Lam looked back and saw the scene above — two people on the ground. His initial instinct was that they were hurt.

“I looked back and thought someone was injured and I shot that. I framed it up, juxtaposed with the policemen.”

Lam didn’t realize what he had captured. He turned his images in to the photo editors who were processing the volumes of photos chronicling the events of the night.

A little while later another photographer from the Getty team came up to him and said “nice picture of the couple kissing.” Unsure of what he was referring to, he returned to the editing room.

“Oh my God – they’re making out!” Lam said.

In retrospect Lam said “it was just crazy – for them to do something like that. I don’t understand why people riot to begin with.”

Some others have their suspicions, and with good reason. Comments like those from Jess, below, give me reason to think the couple are performers of some kind:

I saw the same couple make out in the middle of the road (on the divider between oncoming traffic in Yaletown a week ago. Pacific and Homer to be exact. It looks like they like the thrill of making out in public with people watching.

A photo that appears to have been taken at the same location makes it look even less organic. CNBC's Darren Rovell along with Steve Poller and Sara Lauch questioned whether the two intentionally staged themselves there.

UPDATE: 6/17/2011, 12:00pm ET --

nineMSN.com has uncovered the identity of the male in the photo, after an interview with immediate relatives. The website says that Hannah Jones, from Perth, told them that the man is her brother, Scott Jones, 29, who lives and works in Vancouver.

Late yesterday Getty Images reached out to Lam, who provided his employer with the entire series of images.
You can see them here: http://bit.ly/kwz2JD

UPDATE: 6/20/2011, 9:00am ET --

This morning the couple in the widely-seen photo appeared on the today show. Scott Jones and Alex Thomas address accusations that the photo was faked. "I was just trying to calm her down. It seemed like the thing to do," Jones said. Continue reading...