DISCUSS - 40 years ago - two photogs captured the same moment.

[Steve Russell]

40 years ago two photogs captured the iconic Paul Henderson goal, whose is better and why?


Frank Lennon's is on the left and Denis Brodeur's is on the right.

Toronto Star photo blog about the two pictures

[Jack Simpson]

I like Lennons cuz the background is more diffused but Brodeur's shows a tad more fan reaction

Cheers,

Jack

[David Chidley]

I love them both, not worth splitting hairs.

[Jason Prupas]

I like Frank Lennon's a little better only because the player on the right doesn't have his face covered with a hockey stick like the other photo. Otherwise they are both great pictures.

[Moe Doiron]

The dimensions don't match so one of those has been cropped. I would be curious to know if Brodeur's frame has more on the right? Also, is the scan of Lennon's from a print that has been airbrushed? Seems odd that the background would fall off like that given that they are both shot with a long lens from the same distance, most likely the same focal length and aperture.

[Moe Doiron]

A little Googling turned up this ... a full(ish) frame version of Brodeur's (pic_1)

[Moe Doiron]

... also a version where the player on the right was not cut off (pic_2) from Star blog.

[Moe Doiron]

... AND turns out it doesn't really matter because for posterity he was cropped out at the time (pic_3) also from Star blog.

[Kenneth Armstrong]

This is simultaneously a good lesson to never stand beside another photographer because you'll probably get the exact same shot and also a good reason why you should probably stand beside other photographers... so you do get the same shot.

[David Chidley]

Thanks for digging those up Moe, adding to the original question from Steve, how would you have cropped it?  Side by side posted above I give the slight edge to Lennon's pic, but if you are going to crop it tighter without the player on the right as the Star did, Brodeur's pic has Henderson's leg slightly higher looking more like he is jumping for joy, so I'd take that one cropped to Henderson's glove but still with Tretiak's face in it!  But they both nailed it!

[Steve Russell]

It is too tough to call, both have certain elements that I like.
In the end, if I was under the gun to publish one and not the other I would have to give the edge to Frank Lennon's.
I feel that the connection to Henderson in the image is a wee bit stronger.
Maybe it is the fact that he is slightly more square to the camera, but I feel that his eyes might be tad more open.
I wonder if both were entered for the NNA.
There was no Sports Photography category, Lennon won in Spot News.

In 1991 there was a simular situation, Barry Gray of the Spectator and Fred Thornhill of the Toronto Sun shared the Sports NNA for a Blue Jays picture.

[Ken Gigliotti]

Photographers working in a far off , dingy hostile Soviet arena ,experiencing  the greatest Canadian contribution  to that  frigid Cold War sporting experience and using shear Canadian will , overcoming and capturing one of the greatest Canadian sports pictures ever . Priceless .I saw the Soviet Wpg game in Wpg , still in high school at the time , it is hard to put into words  how charged that whole event really was . Sports greatness on both sides , they captured it under difficult conditions , in a medium  not quite at it's peak . High speed black and white , pushed  and dragged .