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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 17, 2009Dan CraigTHE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for coming to the 2010 NHL Bridgestone Winter Classic briefing. We'll hear from Dan Craig in a minute on the update on the rink build?out. I'll turn it over to Dan, and he can give an update on what you just saw and where we are with the rink build?out. DAN CRAIG: Here we are one day before we're going to skate on it for the first time with the general public. As you know, we brought in our two new Zambonis that we have purchased. The reason that we have the smaller editions is that we have been experiencing a couple little situations where the heavier machines have just, on continuous use, has been tough on the conditions of the ice on ongoing basis. So these machines are over 1500 pounds lighter than the bigger models that are used at the TD Garden. So those are now going to have blades put on them. Everything's going to get greased up and we'll be out there later today. And as you notice, the crew was putting down bluelines/faceoff spots, and the crease will be down in the next 20 minutes or so. So we'll be back to getting on the hose floods here later today. I'm pleased to announce that my crew was within eight minutes of our production time from six months ago. So we're right on schedule. And Mother Nature is helping us very well here today. Q. How does it feel to have Ray Bourque and Bobby Orr on the ice at the same time for you tomorrow? DAN CRAIG: I didn't know I was having them. I understand. But you see, I just work on the rink and I don't have a whole lot of information. I know that Ray Bourque is going to be here and I didn't know exactly who else was going to be here. But I guess for the crew that would be a phenomenal feeling. I knew eventually they would, each of them would be here. I just didn't realize they would both be at the same time. Q. Is it all go ahead for tomorrow's skate? DAN CRAIG: As far as we see right now. Nothing's in the way. Q. Can you speak to any particular challenges that building the rink here at Fenway presented that you maybe didn't notice the first two Winter Classics, or anything in particular there? DAN CRAIG: No, nothing in particular. It's as we mentioned before, this is our second time with this new equipment, new floor, being able to put our crew together from across the country, both North America and Canada, U.S. and Canada. So the guys get more familiar with themselves, the personalities get together. And it's just one of those things where you just ? just like putting a team together. Just everybody's a good family and it's happy times. Q. Dan, could you talk about being on schedule? How many minutes were you within what you budgeted? DAN CRAIG: I want to say nine, but it's probably closer to eight. Not that I keep count, but it was probably because of our walk from the hotel to here this morning. Might have influenced the shortage of time, because we had to stop for coffee. Q. Temperature on game day, as much as the general public thinks that it has to be 32 degrees to have ice and skate, it's not so. Can you talk about what ideal temperatures would be and what the maximum temperature would be to where you could still have ice on the 1st? DAN CRAIG: Now, we've got to qualify the ice. Because we can have ice. Just for quality of ice that we need, that's why we have the machine that we built, commissioned especially for the National Hockey League. Our parameters, right now the way it was designed, we'll hold at 50 degrees and we haven't been pushed past that. So we're not too sure where it can go, as this piece of equipment has got 75?horse variable speed drive pumps into the floor, so we can exchange the coolant in the floor fairly quickly. Q. As long as the temperature is below 50, everything's fine? DAN CRAIG: Yeah. Q. Or it could go up? DAN CRAIG: It could go up. But the thing is that's when the magic tricks are happening. And we'll just ? Mother Nature does what she does and we will do what she tells us to do. End of FastScripts |
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