Advertisement

Incredible backyard rink has ice-level bar, golf cart Zamboni (Photos)

It's the middle of winter, so backyard rinks are in full bloom. Many you see are of the no frills variety -- some wood acting as the boards and a fresh sheet of ice with hockey equipment littered on top.

But for Justin Lachapelle, a resident of St-Lazare, Quebec, he's taken his love for the Montreal Canadiens and his ability to build a backyard rink to an entirely different level.

Not only does his 64-by-32 rink have re-used boards from a local rink, painted lines and face-off circles to make it look like Bell Centre, there's also a dressing room and, most importantly, a rink-side bar for post-game pops:

Lachappelle told the Gazette that it took him eight years to build -- "Eight years of insanity" to be exact. It takes approximately 10 hours of maintenance for every hour of play, he said. Now that's commitment.

From the Gazette:

Lachapelle starts working on the rink as the temperature begins to drop, usually in November, waiting until the temperature is low enough to maintain a base layer of ice.

“You have to be pretty nuts. You have to look at the three-day weather forecast and get out there. If it’s 3 in the morning, you’ve got to get out there at 3 in the morning and water accordingly,” he said.

To help clean the ice in-between games, Lachapelle turned a golf cart into his own ice resurfacer, he is demonstrated in this video he created:

All that's left now is the Mystery, Alaska-style game against the real Montreal Canadiens.

- - - - - - -

Sean Leahy

is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!