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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 20, 2010

Dan Craig

SCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Good afternoon, everybody. Today we have with us Dan Craig, the NHL's Facilities Operations Manager, here to discuss the details of the ice rink construction that will begin in Heinz Field next Thursday for the upcoming 2011 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins on New Year's Day, 1:00 Eastern on NBC, CBC and RDS.
Dan has 44 years in the business of ice-making. 23 with the league, comprised of 10 with the Edmonton Oilers and 13 in his current position at the NHL. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Dan who will say a few words, then we'll open it up for questions.
DAN CRAIG: Thank you. I just wanted to give a brief rundown of what this week will entail. I'm headed to Pittsburgh today. The Steelers play their next home game on Thursday, and it will be completed somewhere between 10:45 and 11:00 at night. We will take to the field at midnight, putting down roadways and our decking overnight. Then on Friday, December 24th, we will bring our refrigeration trailer into place with generators hooked up for the power side of it.
And at which time we will bring our containers down for the ice floor down on to the stadium floor and offload. The offload will take us probably 10 to 12 hours to complete. And then we will do our main hookup from that point on. And we're hoping that all things considered, Mother Nature will be good to us, and we will be making ice by 9:00 on Christmas night. And we'll be building ice from that point on.
And then on the 28th we'll be doing our hockey lines, markings, and logo installation, and we'll be ready for a skate on the afternoon of the 30th and ready for a full day of activity on the 31st. And that's our rundown for the week.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. I wonder if you could kind of talk about how far the technology or your ability to accomplish this has come just since you started with the first Winter Classic to here we are now in Pittsburgh?
DAN CRAIG: It's come a long ways. The very first one that we did, as you know, we had to really fight the crown in the field on that one, which we're also doing on this one, but we're now elevating it on to a stage.
But on the technology side, we've also included an in-line heating system in case our weather gets too cold, which we had experienced in Boston for a few days prior to the Winter Classic last year.
And we have instrumentation that we put within the system called Eye on the Ice that we monitor, sends us signals all the time. Every 15 minutes we'll log and trend it so we can graph what's happening on any given day. And every city that we go to we have a complete weather breakdown of the area so we know what systems are coming through.
So it's one of those things that we've really tightened our technology up into what will help us enhance the game.

Q. I covered the Big Chill at the Big House, and one of their guys there was just saying that it's gotten to the point that the technology for the ice is sophisticated enough, now their biggest concern is just making sure they have the right platform to support the Zamboni and making sure it's level. Is that your take on it, too, that the ice-making isn't quite the challenge as it once was and now it's just making sure you have the platform?
DAN CRAIG: I guess that's why you have certain contractors within industry and I have the job that I have, because we are on the best platform of the world. And from the minute that we start to the minute that the final whistle goes, I am always concerned.
The base is very important, but our everyday activity and what happens throughout the day is also very important to us because we are at the highest level of talent within the world. And that's what we're showcasing here.

Q. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what the weather conditions do to the ice. You just mentioned that it's possible to be too cold. Like how cold is too cold and why? Is there a humidity issue? Could there be too much snow coming down? Could you talk about that sort of thing?
DAN CRAIG: Every day that we have is going to present a challenge. And when we get up in the morning, that's why we have the crew that we have pulled together here. It is a matter of knowing what is coming, what challenges that we're going to have throughout the day, because weather patterns ? it doesn't matter where you live ? the weather patterns can change throughout the day. You have a fairly good snapshot of it, but it's a matter of how you deal with each situation, and that's why we're at the stadiums at 4:00 in the morning and not at 10:00 in the morning for a 1:00 game, because we're continually looking and continually monitoring trying to keep ahead of and create a game plan throughout the day of how to handle whatever Mother Nature gives us.

Q. So is there a certain temperature, then, that you hit that is just too cold for the ice for some reason? I was unclear on that.
DAN CRAIG: Well, it's one of those things where minus 20 is too cold and it's too cold for us to be outside and too cold for us to make ice.
And that's why within our program, even a building, we have, on this particular one, we don't have a lot of leeway, but we do have some. So if we happen to get a really cold snap that we can -- it will be a detriment to the surface if we continue. And that's how come we have four, six hours at certain locations that we can back away for a while and then come back on it, which means that we're going to have to make that time up somewhere.
So it's a continual evolution of what Mother Nature is going to throw at you.

Q. Curious, did you see the Steelers game yesterday?
DAN CRAIG: Yes, I did. I watched the whole thing, thank you.

Q. Now, when you watched that game, I was curious how you watched it. Do you watch it as a football fan watching the game or because you know you're going to be working on that field at a certain time? Were you even taking inventory in your own mind of the weather, of the way the snow was blowing about? Anything like that? Could you do that just by watching it on television?
DAN CRAIG: I think you know me too well already. Yes. As a matter of fact, yes, I did watch it as a fan. But it's one of those things, where there were places on the ground that I was watching within the field and I was watching the way the snow was swirling, because they were showing some pretty good shots of it.
So you take record of it and kind of say, "Okay, that's what's happening at this end zone. This is what happens at that end zone." But until you stand there and really are able to work with it, you get a true appreciation when your feet are on the ground there.

Q. I'm curious, the weather patterns you mentioned. We've talked extensively about what weather is good, what weather is not good. I just looked at the 10?day forecast and there's snow flurries every day in that forecast. Does that add -- does it make you a little bit more nervous that there's snow flurries that every day you could have to wake up spending two hours shovelling the snow off the thing before you really get to work? Does that concern you in a way, or just a few snow flurries, not a big deal?
DAN CRAIG: I must be a good Western Canadian guy because flurry means very little snow. I'm looking at a few snow showers and a little bit of wind, few snow showers, cloudy on the 28th, mostly cloudy on the 29th. So, no, we have a very good crew and we just pick our spots. And this thing is put together like a jigsaw puzzle.
If we have to work 20 feet at a time, shovel snow, 20 feet at a time, shovel snow, that's what we'll do.

Q. I was just wondering, of all the ice surfaces, outdoor ice surfaces you've done, which one were you most happy with, and which one was the most problematic for you?
DAN CRAIG: Well, I'll tackle the your last question first, which was Buffalo. And there was a lot of elements that went into play on that one being that it was our first one that the NHL had done, even though I had worked on a couple of other ones.
And for me it's pretty tough to say, because both Chicago and Boston were good. I think Chicago was probably, at game time, for the three to four hours that we were on the world stage, it was probably our best surface.

Q. And what kind of feedback have you gotten from the players over the years, and how much of that is in terms of ? has kind of gone into the tweaks that you guys have made over the course of time?
DAN CRAIG: The only time they see me is on practice day prior to. I introduce myself, this is what we're going to do, this is what we're going about. Being in the industry as long as I have, and with the talent that I'm surrounded with, with my crew, I don't need players to expressly tell me what they're feeling out there because I can see it. I watch their expressions. I watch what happens within the game. And I can basically write the script of the report, what the guys are going to tell me.
Once the game is over, we want them to have enjoyed the time that they had with the NHL Winter Classic, and we move forward.

Q. What was the first outdoor rink that you constructed or that you helped work on? And what knowledge have you gained over the years that have become integral to building them as you've gone into these NHL Winter Classics?
DAN CRAIG: I think you better clarify what you call for a rink, because back in 1979 I had a small rink in my backyard that my little four-year-old was skating on. And he's now part of my crew that does Winter Classics. That was in Northern Alberta, up in Bonneville prior to even going to Edmonton. And from that point on, being in Alberta, you work on a lot of outdoor rinks, little ponds. And you hear the stories that guys are playing ? that's how they started their career playing on ponds and so on.
So we've done a couple of outdoor rinks with the City of Edmonton, and throughout the years. And then when we came ? my biggest challenge was doing the rink over the top of a swimming pool in Tokyo, Japan, which was the first year that Brian Burke hired me and that's when you take a lot of information, starting from there, and you just pull it as you're ongoing. And you're talking back in 1997 is the first time we went over to Japan. WeÂ’ve done that three times now. And you bring that information to the next one. You take it to the outdoor platform, and then you deal with what Mother Nature gives you.

Q. Is there anything that remains constant about building a rink outdoor, be it on a pond in Alberta or at Heinz Field or on a swimming pool in Tokyo?
DAN CRAIG: What remains constant is stress, because of the high caliber the players that we have playing on our surface. And that's what ? for me, that's what it is. Because there are two regular-season NHL points on the table. And we are on the world platform. And I want to make sure that everybody has the ability to play the game at the highest level.

Q. The superstar power in this game with Crosby and Ovechkin is at the highest it's probably been in a Winter Classic. I'm curious, do you sense there's more hype regarding this Winter Classic than other Winter Classics because of that?
DAN CRAIG: Yeah, there probably is more hype. But I don't think that adds any different pressure than what we've experienced in the past, because I'm aboutÂ… As soon as this call is over, I'm going to jump in my vehicle. I'm going to the airport. I'm in Pittsburgh tonight. I can already feel the jitters coming. So it's the same as every other year. It's the same as any other major event that we've done.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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