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Home ice advantage

Broadcast Date: Jan. 20, 2004

Envy the Laprairies of Regina. Their backyard rink would be the delight of many a town. It's big, it has boards and banners that flutter in the breeze and when night falls, they simply flip on the lights. Maurice Laprairie says he's added new features every year, mostly for his own enjoyment. "The kids would be happy with a sheet of ice and two nets," he says in this CBC Television clip. His work has paid off though.

In 2003, the CBC and Home Depot named the home ice of the LHL (Laprairie Hockey League) the best backyard rink in Canada. The family of seven is defending its title in 2004. But no matter what happens, local kids say they'll take backyard fun over organized hockey any day. "It's way more fun — you can do whatever you want," one boy says. Another adds: "You're outside — it feels like Canadian hockey."

Home ice advantage

• The Laprairies beat nine other finalists from across the country to win the 2003 title. Each entrant sent in a photo of their rink and a short essay explaining why it was the best. The rinks were judged on creativity, the quality of the rink construction and the essay. The family put the rink together over three days in late October and waited for snow to fall to pack around the edges of the boards and create a watertight seal.

• The Laprairies failed to hold on to the title. The best backyard rink in 2004 was judged to be that of the George Matwychuk of Fort McMurray, Alta. His rink was extra big because it sprawled across his yard and also that of his neighbour. The families tore down a fence but left standing a lone, skinny tree in the middle of the ice. They joked about "Woody" the extra defenceman.

• While not among the winners, Rideau Hall, the governor general's residence in Ottawa, has a top-notch backyard rink. It was opened to the public in 1872 by then-governor general Lord Dufferin. The sons of Lord Stanley, a later vice-regal and the namesake of the Stanley Cup, got in trouble in 1890 when they were spotted playing hockey on a Sunday. An Ottawa pastor denounced from the pulpit those who had "joined in the game and gloried in its shame."

• Despite its historic shinny past, hockey games are no longer permitted on the Rideau Hall rink during public skate times.
• The backyard rink that Walter Gretzky built for his son Wayne has become mythic. "I built that rink for self-preservation," so he could watch the action from inside a warm house, Walter said in 1999. "People always say, 'Wow you built a rink so Wayne and the boys could skate.' No. It was for me. It was so I wouldn't freeze to death."

• Walter Gretzky's tips for rink making:
- You can't have long grass. You've got to cut it short.
- You've got to have level ground. It's impossible to make it if it's on an angle because the water just runs away.
- You've got to have frozen ground or a base underneath to hold the water.
- It's got to be very cold when you're making it (about –7C).
- Use a sprinkler and keep moving it around.

• Before there were backyard rinks, people skated on ponds, lakes and rivers. The game on natural ice has become symbolic of pure grassroots hockey played only for the fun of it. Bemoaning formulized play coming out of minor hockey, legendary defenceman Bobby Orr said in 1998: "We've got to let the kids be creative. Let them play like they were out on a pond."

• Hockey in the wild has often been immortalized in Canadian art. Pond hockey is depicted on the $5 bill unveiled in 2002. Jane Siberry evoked playing on a frozen river in her 1989 song Hockey. It included the lyrics: "You skate as fast as you can 'til you hit the snowbank (that's how you stop)/ and you get your sweater from the catalogue/ you use your rubber boots for goal posts/ ah...walkin' home."

Home ice advantage

Medium: Television

Program: Canada Now

Broadcast Date: Jan. 20, 2004

Guest(s): Maurice Laprairie

Reporter: Dean Gutheil

Duration: 2:22

Last updated:
Nov. 14, 2006