I wonder how long it took players to get use to a crowd around the rink. This looks distracting.

16 comments

1. Keep your eye 👁 on the puck.

2. Look how little of the net the goaltender covers. He really had to be on his game…

3. It’s always interesting to see how everyone is well dressed to watch the game in those days.

4. NHL attendance was strong from the get go in 1917 with the best teams constantly upgrading their rinks to accommodate more people. Crowd sizes have only gotten bigger year over year.

5. What’s distracting is the advertising on the boards, goalies with balloon pads and the protective netting

6. The 🥅 looks way bigger and the goalie way smaller.

7. Nah. You kind of zone them out. Maybe on the bench you notice, but I’ve played in a packed house before. Once you’re playing, they basically disappear

8. Part of what you are seeing here is due to this photo being taken with a telephoto lens. Probably from behind the other net. When you use a telephoto lens it compresses everything to make things look closer together. For example most of the skaters in this pic are in the neutral zone, not right in front of the net. Jacques is out in front of his net, not sitting in the cage. And crowd isn’t really as close as they seem.

9. You tune it out pretty quick when you’re hyperfocused on the game (speaking as an old goalie anyways).

10. It’s a lighting illusion. Back then, cameras had their own flash bulbs. Today, a camera is linked to strobes in the arena that don’t give this illusion

11. Also noticed no netting around the rink you really had to watch the game

12. Plante learned the hard way to become the first goalie to wear a mask. When you see just how exposed he is in a pic like this its insane.

13. I played in front of pretty packed rinks in high school and college hockey. Once you are on the ice you are in your own world. There is so much going on so fast that you aren’t caught up in that at all really. Maybe in a fleeting second on the bench but thats it

14. Doesn’t look like there is any glass around the rink, though I see what seems to be stanchions. Is it a play of light or was there no glass around the boards in this era of the NHL? The sticks look flat, so I wonder how hard the shots were.

15. You are staring at the puck most of the time

16. Tell me you haven’t played hockey without telling me you’ve never played hockey (or most other sports for that matter).