NHL hockey players from various teams used to practice together each August. These casual practices helped the players get in shape before the start of their respective team’s training camps in September. These Toronto-area practices were organized quietly so as not to attract public attention. But if you knew which ice rinks were being used, you could go and watch some top-level NHL players.
This has been happening in Toronto for at least 25 years and it probably happened in some other hockey cities as well.
Then the pandemic came along.
Players no longer practice together during the off-season to minimize contact with each other. The NHL schedule is out-of-whack. Ice rinks are mostly closed.
It was nice to photograph these practices because the players were relaxed and it was easy to make photos from very close. Plus the rinks were nice and cool compared to the outdoor summer temperatures.
I initially photographed these practices for newspapers and later for corporate sponsors (i.e. companies that sponsored a player or supplied product to the players or the NHL). The photo above, from 2015, was part of a series of pictures shot for a sporting goods retail chain that advertised with the NHL. The retail chain published the photos on its social media leading up to the start of the new hockey season.
Some NBA basketball players also used to get together to practice in the off-season. I don’t know if players in other sports did this, too. With the ongoing pandemic, who knows when this will happen again.
