{"id":433602,"date":"2026-01-29T02:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/433602\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T02:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:51:12","slug":"nhl-players-share-a-common-love-for-outdoor-rinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/433602\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL players share a common love for outdoor rinks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Quinton Turcotte 16, goes for an early morning skate on Pigeon Lake pond hockey rink near Bobcaygeon, Ont. in January, 2021.Fred Thornhill\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Victor Hedman remembers rushing home from school and scarfing down whatever food he could find.<\/p>\n

The aim was to get into the frigid winter air as soon as possible. The destination? The local outdoor rink.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was every day for me,\u201d the Tampa Bay Lightning captain said of his hockey-packed childhood in Sweden. \u201cI could skate on the road \u2026 it was just a few minutes away. We spent so much time there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still recovering from elbow surgery, Hedman could be back in the lineup Sunday when his team faces the Boston Bruins outdoors in the Florida sun at Raymond James Stadium \u2013 home of the NFL\u2019s Tampa Bay Buccaneers \u2013 as part of the NHL\u2019s Stadium Series.<\/p>\n

Professional hockey players were kids with dreams before making the big time. The goals scored, games won and trophies raised often first played out in their mind\u2019s eyes on uneven sheets of frozen water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most pure hockey memories,\u201d Washington Capitals centre Pierre-Luc Dubois said of falling in love with the game in the elements as a kid growing up in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Que. \u201cNot keeping score, there\u2019s no jerseys. You\u2019re out there to play. Sticks in the middle and it\u2019s 12-versus-12. Not much room.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut some of the best memories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nashville Predators centre Ryan O\u2019Reilly said his parents \u2013 like many still do today \u2013 spent hours curating the family\u2019s backyard rink.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp all hours of the night, flooding it, getting a big barrel and dumping the barrel,\u201d said the Clinton, Ont., product. \u201cIt was incredible. That\u2019s where that love of the game comes from. We\u2019d be out there until dinnertime, go and eat, come back out and get called in for bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re beet-red, face is burnt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Workers build the canopy that will help protect the ice from the weather over an NHL hockey rink at Raymond James Stadium last week in Tampa, Fla.Chris O’Meara\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Vegas Golden Knights centre Jack Eichel, who grew up just outside Boston, remembers feeling free on the local ponds each winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a coach telling you to do a drill,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing more natural about the game than just being out there and with a stick and a puck \u2026 whether you\u2019re passing around with someone, shooting on net, just skating.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minnesota Wild defenceman Quinn Hughes remembers the outdoor rinks \u2013 including in Toronto when his father worked for the Maple Leafs \u2013 as sanctuaries without pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking about like my game or anything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was just fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Louis Blues forward Robert Thomas would watch the world junior hockey championship or NHL players at the Olympics, and then head outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re trying to recreate all the goals out there and hit your buddies in the snow banks,\u201d said the Aurora, Ont., native. \u201cThere\u2019s tons of great memories. Every chance you can to play outside now, it\u2019s super special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carolina Hurricanes centre Seth Jarvis spent as much time as he could on the local rink, even procuring a set of keys to keep the lights on late into those cold Winnipeg nights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was everything for me,\u201d Jarvis said. \u201cI was out there for way longer than I should have been. I definitely had school and stuff I had to do. But that\u2019s where I fell in love with hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t realize how fun it was outside until you don\u2019t do it anymore. It was the best time of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ask NHL players about his outdoor rink memories and their eyes often light up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about it that is so Canadian,\u201d O\u2019Reilly said. \u201cIt was just such an event. It was something you just did every day: \u2019Let\u2019s go on the pond or let\u2019s go to the backyard rink.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surging Sabres<\/p>\n

The Buffalo Sabres drilled the Maple Leafs 7-4<\/a> in Toronto on Tuesday to improve to an NHL-best 19-3-1 over their last 23 games. <\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: After yet another Maple Leafs face plant, we can say it: this team is cooked<\/a><\/p>\n

The franchise has missed the playoff 14 straight seasons \u2013 the league\u2019s longest active drought \u2013 but that dry run could finally come to an end this spring.<\/p>\n

Schedule crunch<\/p>\n

The NHL\u2019s Olympic return means men\u2019s hockey will see a true best-on-best competition for the first time since the 2014 event in Sochi, Russia. It has also created a tight regular-season schedule across the league with lots of games \u2013 and little time to practise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been tough,\u201d Detroit Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. \u201cWe\u2019re a team that has to be on the ice to really get better. We have a sports science department that keeps the coaching staff in line, lets us know when we\u2019re running hot or cold, whether it\u2019s the group or individuals, and we try and react to that. Like any season, it gets a little more narrow as the year goes on as far as practice time goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut seems to be happening quicker this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Quinton Turcotte 16, goes for an early morning skate on Pigeon Lake pond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5119],"tags":[1018,1001,1019,967,991,1020,19,990,1008,1009,1004,992,989,1014,1016,1013,1007,1000,1030,993,994,1006,5,1002,1003,997,1021,2409,231,5281,998,1025,1026,4,1028,1023,1027,786,1024,995,1011,1012,333,1010,2410,1022,86,1015,1017,1005,999,996,1029],"class_list":["post-433602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nashville-predators","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-hockey","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-nashville","tag-nashville-predators","tag-nashvillepredators","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-nhl","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-predators","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}