Zac Laszuk could feel the boisterous Wachovia Center crowd as he nervously laced his skates.
The Chicago Blackhawks entered Game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final with a 3-2 series lead and were in search of the franchise’s first Cup since 1961. As the final minutes of the third period ticked away, the Blackhawks held a 3-2 lead. Then, with 3:59 remaining, Flyers forward Scott Hartnell netted the game-tying goal to force overtime.
Sitting in a hallway behind the Blackhawks dressing room, Laszuk anxiously waited. Promoted to the role of skate cam operator on the CBC’s broadcast of the Stanley Cup Final prior to Game 5, his moment to hit the ice couldn’t come soon enough.
“I’m getting kind of nervous,” Laszuk recalled. “At this point in my life, this is the biggest moment in my professional career and of course the game has to go to overtime so I have another 20 minutes to sit and think about it.
“I just remember tying my skates, and un-tying them, and being like, ‘They’re too tight, oh now they’re too loose’. I just kind of got in my head about it. Finally, I just sat there and said, ‘All you’ve got to do is point the camera at what you want to see’. I sat there with my eyes closed just concentrating on that.”
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Patrick Kane scored the winner at 4:09 of the first overtime, clinching the club’s first Stanley Cup in 49 years and opening the door for Laszuk, who was hovering in the Blackhawks tunnel, to hit the ice in his new role for the first time.
“That really was just a blur. I don’t remember anything,” he said. “I think I just blacked out. But then I remember (Jonathan) Toews picking up the Cup and he skated towards me. If you watch that one, it’s my worst one by far. I was nervous and I backed up and zoomed out at the same time, then the camera shakes and the whole team skated behind me and sort of… they didn’t push me out of the way, but they didn’t care that I was there.”
The birth of the skate cam operator
Veteran CBC cameraman Glenn Weston was the first to step on the ice with Hockey Night in Canada at a Stanley Cup Final.
The role came to fruition in Los Angeles when Weston was spotted on the ice shooting video for Kings promotional materials.
“(Producer) Tracey (Leiweke) used to bring me down to L.A. and we used to shoot season ticket holder videos for the Kings,” Weston said. “I would bring my skates and I would skate with the camera, which was no one was doing back then.
“Afterward, the CBC comes in to do a Hockey Night in Canada game, which I wasn’t working because we don’t take people on the road for regular season, cameramen anyway. They come to the rink and see me on the ice skating with the camera shooting the Kings. I think that got the ball rolling.”
With Ron Forsythe, the director of Hockey Night in Canada, leading the charge, Weston would go on to work six Stanley Cup Finals and four NHL All-Star Games as the network’s first skate cam operator.
Weston first hit the ice in 2006 after the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 at PNC Arena.
“That was cool,” recalled Weston. “It was (Rod) Brind’Amour getting the Cup right in front of me and just going out with it, skating with the guys. It was a pretty awesome experience.”
Learning from dad
Growing up in West Vancouver, Laszuk’s father, George Laszuk worked as a cameraman for the CBC’s French network for 41 years.
It was as a five-year-old that Laszuk first fully grasped his father’s vocation and ultimately planted the seed for his own career path.
“I remember in Grade 1, we were learning about space, and my dad took me out of school for a day because he was doing an interview with Buzz Aldrin,” said Laszuk. “He said, ‘Well instead of learning about space at school, why don’t you just come hang out with Buzz Aldrin for the day’.
“I think it got implanted in my head at that point that, ‘My dad has a pretty cool job, maybe that’s something I could end up doing’. I kind of from then on would always play around with cameras – film my friends snowboarding or BMX-ing or whatever.”
Laszuk eventually went to Capilano University in North Vancouver to hone his camera skills. With the help of his dad, he landed a job at CBC Vancouver, and after working occasionally on hockey night broadcasts, joined the program full-time for the 2010 playoff run.
It was during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs that Weston decided to hand the skate cam role to his prodigy.
“I knew Zac was up and coming and a guy that showed a lot of promise,” said Weston. “I kind of took him under my wing, and showed him the ropes. I gave him essentially 30 years of handheld camera tips that I’d learned over my career.
“He listened, he took those, used them, and became an outstanding hand held cameraman.”
The tryout
Weston knew Laszuk could handle the skating aspect of the job since the two played together on the CBC Blues beer league hockey team.
Laszuk got word of the skate cam opportunity during the 2010 Stanley Cup Final and was flown to Chicago mid-series for what turned into a tryout between him and a candidate from NBC at the United Center.
With the series between the Blackhawks and Flyers tied 2-2, and Game 5 set to go the next night, Laszuk was hoping to get his own Cup moment.
“They basically did a fake Cup raise where two guys were on the ice passing a stick over their heads back and forth and they had me go out and spin around with the camera and they had the NBC guy go out and spin around with the camera, Laszuk said. “They just decided I should be the one to do it.”
Weston recalls the ‘tryout’ being no contest between Laszuk and his counterpart from NBC.
“I essentially went on to the ice in Chicago with Zac and this guy from NBC with the NHL brass all there watching and showed him how I did, got him to do it,” said Weston. “Then the NBC guy tried it, and he was a gong show.”
A few nights later, a nervous Laszuk took the ice for the first time as the network’s skate cam operator as Toews and his teammates celebrated with the Cup.
“I think when I got home that night, and you just see the shot over and over, I was like ‘Wow, that was cool man’,” recalled Laszuk. “With the Cup going up, I get to do that shot every year. I always like to think when Toews or (Sidney) Crosby goes in the Hall of Fame, a lot of the video they show will be stuff that I shot.
“Anybody could’ve done it, but I was lucky enough to be the guy out there doing it.”
The Memories
As the 2018 Stanley Cup final gets underway on Monday in Las Vegas, Laszuk is getting set to work the final round for the eighth time in his career and has built a plethora of memories along the way.
Though he grew up a Detroit Red Wings fan, as a native of Vancouver the 2011 final between the Bruins and Canucks is one that stands out as memorable.
“Obviously that’s (one of the) darkest days in Canucks history,” said Laszuk. “I was never a huge Canucks fan, but I wanted Vancouver to win, I love the city and I know it would’ve been such a big moment. The way it ended it was just so unfortunate.
“As unfortunate as it was, in Vancouver, the (Zdeno) Chara one went really well. It was a great moment where he just sort of picks it up, shakes it, and screams at the same time.”
Skating around the ice with 40 pounds of camera gear doesn’t come without challenges. Last spring, while on the ice with the Pittsburgh Penguins at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Laszuk ran into an unforeseen obstacle.
“Crosby took the Cup and skated, looped around, and immediately passed it to (Ron) Hainsey,” Laszuk said. “I’ve got to kind of follow and then stop and then start again. As I stopped, as he passed it to Hainsey, my skate came undone. I did the rest of that with one skate done up.”
Over the years, with the best seat in the house as Gary Bettman presents the Cup, Laszuk has also picked up his share of ‘souvenirs’ from cup finals.
“I think Bruce Bennett hates me,” Laszuk laughs in reference to the veteran Getty Images photographer. “The first couple years, I would go on Getty Images and just find every single (photo). Now, I’ll look at it later.
“The Sports Illustrated one was a big thing. Everybody freaked out. That was pretty cool. It’s not how I wanted to be on the cover, but it’s still pretty cool.”
The 35-year-old admits watching the Penguins win the Cup in back-to-back years, and with players remaining from Pittsburgh’s 2009 win, it appeared to some that winning was becoming old hat.
As he heads to Las Vegas, with this year’s final presenting a first-time winner in either the Golden Knights or Capitals, Laszuk feels rejuvenated to hit the ice for Bettman’s presentation.
“I’m probably more excited this year than I have been in a long time just because I think Vegas winning would be a really cool thing to witness, and be some tiny, behind the scenes, part of watching it all happen,” Laszuk said. Then on the other hand, if Washington was to win, I’ve had a few dealings with (Alex) Ovechkin in my career, and he’s someone I’m cheering for, not just as a hockey fan, but as someone who has always been decent to me.
“I’ll be happy for either team, whoever wins.”