To Russia With Love - Fred Rubinoff's hockey journey
By: Jesse Rubinoff

The year is 1976. Sixteen-year old Fred Rubinoff is sitting in his seat on Aeroflot Airlines, scrunched up like an accordion, when he finally realizes the significance of the moment. As captain of the midget Don Mills Flyers, Fred is about to lead his team into a battle for hockey supremacy against two nations of relative unknowns; the Russians and the Czechoslovakians. Four years earlier, the Russian national team had taken Team Canada to an eighth and final game in the Summit Series, and just months before Fred's journey, Canada had narrowly defeated the Russians again to win the Canada Cup. Fred and his fellow teenage teammates would now be adding another chapter to an already storied hockey rivalry.

It's easy for Fred, now 51 years old, to recount his proudest moments as a hockey player. There is a strong sense of nostalgia, yet a greater sense of accomplishment when he discusses what it was like for his team to play hockey in Russia. But first, Fred makes it clear that the road to Russia cannot be mitigated. It was as big of a thrill, if not a bigger one to be crowned Canada's top team and earn the chance to venture into the great unknown. That year, the Don Mills Flyers had finished the Metro Toronto Hockey League now the Greater Toronto Hockey League season atop the standings. That got them into the Ontario Play-downs, where they steam-rolled teams from Kirkland Lake, Hamilton and Peterborough and earned the chance to play in the Canada-wide Wrigley tournament for a shot to go to Russia and Czechoslovakia.

The Wrigley tournament held significant water in 1976. The best teams from around the country came to do battle in Moncton, New Brunswick, all with the same goal in mind: win the tournament and then get the chance to do what their childhood heroes in the NHL had just done, play in Russia. The Flyers won four games en route to the final where they played against a speedy and skillful squad from Quebec. Nerves had never really been a concern for Fred. He loved the game of hockey and considered it a blessing to be able to play it at such a high level. But as Fred explains, the boys knew how much was on the line going into the finals, "We knew that if we won, we'd be going to Russia as the Canadian representatives. We wanted to be the team that exchanged the logo on the front of our jersey for the Canadian Maple Leaf. So yeah...I was nervous, I think we all were because we wanted to win." The Flyers put together a total team effort and disposed of Quebec's best 7-6, winning the Wrigley Tournament and becoming the latest edition of "Canada's team".

With the tournament victory came a lot of enhanced press coverage. Three major Toronto newspapers started covering the Flyers' every move. As captain of the team, Fred was lured to several speaking arrangements set up by the people at Wrigley. The Flyers started playing exhibition games against Canadian junior teams laden with 18, 19 and 20 year olds to get ready for the Russians and the Czechs. They kept winning. They knew they were good enough, and they wanted the real test. "The anticipation was brutal," says Fred. "We just wanted to go already. We had no idea what we were in for but that was the beauty of it, that was the excitement. Enough with the junior teams we thought, give us the Russians!" And finally, in early March, off they went on that Aeroflot plane, heading for the motherland with one goal in mind...win.

Fred didn't know much about Russia then, but then again nobody really did. As a 16-year old, Fred only knew that it was a communist country, and that the national team had put up quite a fight against the Canadians in the Summit Series. But looking back 35 years later, Fred vividly remembers his time walking around Moscow because there was a lot that was different than what he was used to back home. "The place was very grey, nobody really smiled. The people that were with us were nice, but I assumed those were the higher-ups in the society, because everyone else seemed cold and unmotivated." But the Flyers were treated well. They stayed in a first-class hotel, the food, while it was foreign and not necessarily agreeable with the North-American digestive system, was actually quite tasty. They had everything they wanted. The relationship between the Canadians and the Russians seemed to be blossoming. That is until the Flyers stepped onto the ice.

The Russians had been known to use some questionable tactics on the ice and it didn't take long for Fred to become acquainted with what was in store for the rest of the tournament. Early in the first game, Fred went into the corner to battle for a loose puck, and in came a big, burly Russian chasing after him. Fred got there first, and the Russian player jabbed his stick straight into the back of Fred's right leg. Fred finished the rest of the shift and skated back to the bench. He was in excruciating agony, hesitant to look down at his leg. When he finally brought himself to do it, Fred saw a shard of wood from the Russian's stick lodged in the back of his leg. While he was eventually okay, the spear served notice to the rest of his team that the Russians were going to use any means necessary to come away with victory. Unfortunately for the Russians, their tactics of dirty play weren't good enough in the first game as the Flyers walked away 4-2 victors. The Flyers tied the second game 4-4, and then were slated to square off against the Junior Red Army team, a team of supposed future Russian stars. It was before the game against the Junior Red Army squad where the questionable on-ice tactics of the Russians suddenly turned into questionable off-ice tactics as well.

Before the game against the Red Army, the Russians painted the dressing room that the Flyers had used in previous games, forcing the Flyers to another change room that was about a five minute walk from the ice surface. The entire team's sticks disappeared before magically showing up about five minutes before puck drop. "You never knew if the games that were being played were on purpose or not. So it was really important to not worry about that part of it, and to just go with the flow and concentrate on winning the hockey games," Fred explains. And that's exactly what the Flyers did, disposing of the Junior Red Army team by a score of 5-3.

The fourth team the Flyers were to play against was supposed to be the weakest of the bunch. However, when Fred stepped onto the ice for warmups, and looked across the rink, he had a feeling that wasn't going to be the case. "I recognized some of the players from previous games. We all kind of looked at each other and thought, holy crap, they put together a team of all-stars so that we wouldn't go home undefeated. Whether or not we were correct in assuming their motives, that's what it seemed like for sure." To the Flyers credit, they rose to the occasion and were minutes away from leaving Russia 3-0-1 when a huge brawl erupted in front of the Russians net. The Flyers played the remainder of the game two men down, eventually losing 6-5. "It was a ridiculous ending but we knew in our heart of hearts that we were better than their group of all-stars, and that made us feel pretty good about our accomplishments in Russia."

The Flyers parlayed their impressive performance in Russia into three more wins in Czechoslovakia, finishing with a 3-1-1 record there. The whole trip was deemed a resounding success by the Flyers, their families, the Canadian media, and somewhat surprisingly, by the Europeans themselves. The Flyers had not gone undefeated in Russia nor Czechoslovakia, so the Europeans avoided embarrassment in their own countries. In addition, the off the ice relationship between the Canadians and specifically the Russians continued to grow. Aside from the occasional mind games, no Canadian had a single complaint about their time in Russia. The Canadians as a group felt a lot better about the country after the trip, than they did before it.

The Don Mills Flyers left Europe that year as arguably the best 17-under hockey team in the world. Fred's greatest thrill as a hockey player came when the team arrived back in Canada. He was told his jersey would be placed in the Hockey Hall of Fame for one year, along with other gifts and collectibles the team had brought back from Europe. It was an honour Fred would never, ever forget. "To have my jersey residing inside the same walls as some of the best players in the history of hockey was a spine-tingling experience for me, especially to have my teammates names there right beside mine." It was a team that was as good as the sum of its parts. A couple of players, including Larry Murphy and Paul Marshall would go on to have successful NHL careers, especially Murphy who now finds himself as a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. As for Fred, he chose not to pursue a career in the NHL, partly because he didn't think he was good enough, but also because he wanted to go out on top. "You always hear of these athletes who don't retire at the right times. I had just won the Canadian midget championship, gone to Russia and Czechoslovakia and defeated the best teams there. If I would have made the NHL, I would have had to do a hell of a lot to top what I did as a 16-year old, so I decided to hang 'em up."

A lot has changed since Fred Rubinoff and the Don Mills Flyers went to take on the best the hockey world had to offer. Europe's Iron Curtain fell over twenty years ago, hockey is no longer dominated by Russians and Canadians alone, and the World Junior Championship is what dominates the headlines come Christmas time. But none of that matters to Fred because every time somebody asks him about what it was like to go to Russia, he starts off the story with..."well, I was scrunched up like an accordion on this Aeroflot flight..." and on he goes, and that's something nobody will ever be able to take away from him.