HOCKEY VIDEOS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART
No holds barred as two minor hockey coaches put unique spin on the game
While the sports world looks at concussions in a radically different light than ever before, someone forgot to tell Steven Campbell.
During taping of the wildly popular On The Bench segment this summer, the Airdie resident was flipped into the concrete head first by Drew Doughty, leaving the 28-year-old with an obvious cranium injury.
“An absolute honour for sure,” beamed Campbell, known as Olly Postanin in the viral teaching sections that seem more Super Dave Osborne than Howie Meeker.
“He hip-checked me and I came down pretty hot. It’s not often you get hip checked by Doughty so I’m going full speed at this. On the flight home my head was killing me and I had a headache for two weeks. It was bad. But I would do it again.”
Indeed, Olly and his pal Jacob Ardown have subjected themselves to plenty more abuse while producing Wayne’s World-type “instructional” videos that have the hockey world entertained for the better part of a year.
What started out as a comical demonstration teaching kids the “fundies” (fundamentals), the two minor hockey coaches went viral after posting an “eppie” on them skating on concrete at night.
Sparks flew and their popularity exploded, leading to a series of trips across North America to film one or two-minute shinny demos with the likes of Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Johnny Gaudreau, Marc-Andre Fleury, Jeff Carter, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn.
“Every morning I wake up and I go fix cars and something amazing happens and I say, ‘OK, this is actually real life,’” smiled Jacob, a 27-year-old mechanic whose real name is Ryan Russell.
“These videos are just kind of who we are. We coach in Bantam AA in Airdrie and we try to put the fun into practices for the boys and make them laugh. We decided we’d film it and we got really lucky.”
Really popular too, based on their laughable attempts to educate players on the nuances of the game, using a language of their own that includes flagpole rockets, crossies, ripping rope, cherry poppers, rocket shrapnel, greased snapper, timby, biskies, tendies and shredding hamburger.
“We came up with a few but the majority is just who we are, that’s how we talk,” said Campbell, who says they’re using vacation time at work to make promotional appearances.
“We just kind of accentuate it and make it more Canadian.”
Seen as a hybrid of Bob & Doug McKenzie, Slap Shot, FUBAR and Letterkenny, Olly and Jacob are as Canadian as the laced up, plaid vest the latter wears sleeveless with his red cowboy hat.
“We just really want to bring Canada into it and hockey so we brought every outside influence into and tried to make something on our own,” said Russell.
“There’s really no direction. We originally started this with hopes of getting big enough to open a camp in Airdrie for kids in the summer, and get kids engaged. Now, we don’t want to take it anywhere. We just want to keep making people laugh.”
They certainly do, by being human pinatas for the game’s elite while jokingly trying to give their heroes useless pointers.
They’re not actors, they’re just two Canadian lads from just north of Calgary who met at a skateboard park in high school and found they shared a love for coaching the game they suck so bad in.
Months after a video of them skating on concrete went viral the NHL hired them for a series of shoots with 16 of the top players in New York the league has shown on their website and Twitter feeds for over five million followers.
At a recent Flames game they were stopped for endless autographs and on Sunday they’ll be part of Rogers’ Hometown Hockey broadcast in Airdrie, helping Ron MacLean with go “top corn.”
Their early videos even attracted an agency south of the border that handles their appearances.
This week they were paid to be in Dubai.
“I don’t even think it has set in yet. We’re still processing everything,” said Campbell, who works in the oil and gas field by days, and wears well-loved cowboy boots, torn jeans and killer hockey flow during shoots.
“It’s nutty. It’s a dream. You can’t make this stuff up. We wanted to do it for the kids and encourage them to stay in the sport. After that it’s all up in the air. Whatever happens, happens.”
“The NHLers have been phenomenal. I don’t think we can single one out as the best guy. They’ve all been a different form of personality that makes them easy to be around. It’s like a buddy instantly.”
A buddy who has no qualms winding up for a clapper off the ol’ money bag, as they’d say.
“There’s never too much pain. It’s usually, ‘ let’s do it again and hit me harder. I think it can be better,’” chuckled Campbell, who refuses to wear equipment while blocking real pucks.
“We’re happy to just keep beating each other up for the laughs.”
And they’ve done it without the aid of alcohol.
“We’re not big drinkers but we definitely know how to have fun sober,” said Jacob.
“That’s kind of our thing.” Russell said each eppie takes no more than 10 minutes to make as the mindset revolves around keeping things as improvisational and violent as possible.
“It’s usually done in one take. We just hit each other as hard as we possibly can,” he said.
“It just works.”