He shoots, he scores a hockey series Randy Frykas made Outdoor Hockey Club to celebrate the sport in its most elemental form By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, Apr. 6, 2023

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This article was published 06/04/2023 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Randy Frykas wanted to showcase hockey in its rawest form.

So, the Winnipeg filmmaker turned to Canada’s outdoor rinks — where full equipment, drills, tryouts and registration fees are swapped for the pure enjoyment of the game.

Playing on the ‘ODR’, as many call it, is a beloved pastime for Canadians, but is an often-overlooked part of one the country’s national sports, Frykas maintains.

With that in mind, he set out this winter to uncover 10 compelling stories from Canada’s rinks, documenting the day-to-day activities of some outdoor warriors and the hold outdoor shinny has on them.

Frykas dubbed it the Outdoor Hockey Club.

“There’s more to hockey than what you see, and a lot of that comes from the competitive side,” Frykas says. “There’s people that just love playing the game for what it is, and I felt that that needed to be featured more.”

The docuseries has highlighted eight stories to date. His journey has included stops in such places an Moosomin, Sask. and Newmarket, Ont.; and a far-north trek to Whitehorse, Yukon. He spoke to a range of enthusiasts, including those who are up at the crack of dawn flooding the ice, those who are building community around the pastime, and those who use it as an outlet to continue to enjoy the game they love.

The idea for Outdoor Hockey Club took root in the spring of 2020, when another docuseries directed by Frykas was cancelled in the wake of COVID-19’s arrival. With extra time on his hands, he brainstormed a new idea and created an Instagram account, @outdoorhockeyclub, to post about his love for the ODR, how accessible hockey can be and its benefits.

“Getting outside and being active is a big part of what I like to do to try and balance all the time I spend at a computer working, and outdoor hockey was my outlet to get me out,” says the 42-year-old.

“I started an Instagram account to promote that you can go out and play hockey just for fun. You don’t have to think you’re gonna make it to the NHL, or if you’re not good, you don’t have to hesitate to go to the rink. Everyone should be able to do it.”

That winter, as the account grew more popular, stories of lifelong rinkmakers began surfacing around Manitoba. By spring of 2022, Frykas had the foundation for his next project.

“It was always my goal to make a hockey film in the outdoor hockey genre. It’s always interested me,” says Frykas, who has worked as a freelance director since 2008.

“There’s quite a few of my friends who were turned off from hockey when it got too serious. When you’re an early teenager, that’s when the tryouts started happening. A lot of my friends were turned off from the game and they didn’t really come back to hockey until their 30s.

“It got me thinking that there’s people that quit the game because of those things and didn’t come back to hockey until 15 or 20 years later, and there’s no reason for that. If there was more focus on just playing the game for fun then a lot of us would have kept playing the game.”

Frykas notes a common theme emerged in every community he’s been to this winter.

“When I met a lot of these people, there was kind of like we knew each other already. When you’re interested in the same thing, you kind of talk the same talk,” he says.

The case was no different when he met Winnipeg rinkmaker Eric Reder, who builds two sheets each year on the Seine River, around the corner from Happyland Park in St. Boniface.

Reder began in 2019 after a significant snowstorm struck Winnipeg. He was enjoying his first year living by the river and had watched the water level rise, flood the urban forest and then freeze.

On a whim, he shovelled a 275-metre skating path through the forest for the community to use. The encouraging feedback he received prompted him to take things a step further in 2020 and build a rink to help his son develop his skills as a goalie.

It was also the perfect spot for Reder to strap on the blades himself and get comfortable on the ice again.

He now builds two rinks, which are open to the public each year.

Reder, a minor hockey coach in the city, noticed a need for kids to enjoy some time away from an organized team and play the game without an agenda.

“The structured hockey culture we have doesn’t allow you to skate with your parents or your big brother or your friends who aren’t in the same division, on the same team,” Reder says. “So, the piece of what outdoor hockey was, really wasn’t reinforced for me this year as I was coaching.

“It’s a community space and you see people enjoying themselves. It’s nice to see people utilizing and enjoying themselves outside. And it’s a really magical setting, not having boards, just being in the forest with the snowbanks. That’s why I do it. It’s a little bit more laid back.”

“I want this thing to be the project that I work on for the rest of my life.”–Randy Frykas

Frykas concedes he won’t get to his goal of 10 episodes this year, as warmer temperatures in eastern regions of the country have effectively ended the outdoor hockey season, but confirmed the Outdoor Hockey Club will be a recurring series.

He’ll pick up where he left off next winter and will expand the series by exploring winter hockey in Canada’s warmer regions, such as Vancouver Island, which is said to be home to a bustling roller-hockey scene. Cities such as Edmonton, Fredericton and Ottawa are also on his itinerary when the project resumes.

Says the filmmaker: “I want this thing to be the project that I work on for the rest of my life.”

Episodes can be found on the Outdoor Hockey Club’s YouTube channel.

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca