The best sports photos of 2020 from Getty Images

25. The Battle for New York

Ryan Lindgren and Marc Staal of the New York Rangers defend against Anders Lee of the New York Islanders during the third period at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum on Jan. 16, 2020, in Uniondale, New York. The Rangers defeated the Islanders 3-2.

Let’s just call this one “The Battle for New York”. We’re always guaranteed to have some hard-hitting action with the two New York resident NHL teams — the Rangers and the Islanders — facing off against each other at the Nassau Coliseum. There is always going to be some action in the crease, so I placed a camera in the rafters directly over one net. When you do that, typically you hope for the goalie on his back, but I’ll settle for the Rangers defense keeping the Islanders’ Anders Lee away from a scoring opportunity. From my position at ice level 200-feet away from the net, I hammered away blindly at 12 frames per second whenever there was a goalmouth clash and was able to pull this gem out of the 600 plus images that night.

— Bruce Bennett