	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NHL HERITAGE CLASSIC MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 7, 2011

Dan Craig

DAVID KEON: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm David Keon from the National Hockey League Public Relations Department. I'd like to welcome you to today's call. We have National Hockey League Facilities Operations Manager Dan Craig.
Thank for joining us. On Sunday, February 20th, at 4:00 p.m. Mountain Time, the 2011 Heritage Classic against the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames seen on CBC, RDS and VERSUS will take place at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. Dan is the man in charge of preparing the facility for a regular season National Hockey League game. He's here to tell us about the preparations.
DAN CRAIG: Good afternoon, everyone. Right now the truck, our big refrigeration truck is on a cross-Canada tour. Yesterday we were in Regina. And on Saturday night we were at the Regina Pats game. And then today we're in Saskatoon and later into Edmonton. Stop at Canadian Tire on the west end of Edmonton and going into Calgary and doing the Canadian Tire stop on Wednesday morning. And then on Thursday we will start the set-up of all the trucks. The ice pan and the refrigeration will start the morning of February 10th.
I'm prepared to take questions.

Q. Dan, could you tell us that you probably have seen pretty much everything that you've ever could have imagined seeing in outdoor ice making in Pittsburgh on the 1st of January.
DAN CRAIG: Well, with what we encountered in Pittsburgh, yes, we have now encountered -- from the Heritage Classic, originally, in 2003, to what we had in Pittsburgh and any of the games that we've had along the way we have now encountered basically every element that mother nature has to throw at us.

Q. Are there any possible curve balls that Calgary can throw you, it could be very cold on Saturday and you could get a chinook that blows through and on Sunday the temperature could warm up 20 degrees. How do you guys prepare to face that eventuality?
DAN CRAIG: Well, that's a very good question because what we have done is, because we knew that situations like this were going to come forward, we have purchased and are putting in line a heater which is in conjunction with the truck that we have. So we have a refrigeration truck, but at the same time within the line that goes to the floor, the ice floor, we now have a heater. So if it does get into the minus 15, minus 18, 20, that the heater does kick in so that the lower end of the ice doesn't get too brittle, too dehydrated, so that we're able to maintain an NHL caliber surface.

Q. Quick question with regard to the Winter Classic and with this one going forward, did the experience in Pittsburgh maybe create the opportunity now for these outdoor games to visit warmer climates, do you think? Do you think there's any more support for that now having seen that it can handle a rainy environment like that?
DAN CRAIG: Well, you know, I do speak on behalf of what we can do for ice making, and I think that one of the reasons that we built our own refrigeration system and have the panels and have the whole deployable trucks coming down the road is that we are prepared to go into different climate areas. And that's the thing is that we want to make sure that our NHL players are safe and we have the best game possible because we are regular season games.
So when the Commissioner and Colin Campbell go and discuss what areas are possible for us to go into, they now realize that the truck can handle a warmer trend.

Q. I just want to know how much do you obsess about the weather. At this point, are you checking the long-range forecast every day, or are you to the point where you feel you're prepared for every eventuality no matter what happens, or do you kind of watch the skies a bit?
DAN CRAIG: Well, I can tell you now that our setup day is going to be plus 4 on the 10th, plus 5 on the Saturday, plus 5 on the Sunday, minus 1 on Monday. So, yes, I watch it the long-term weather forecast quite closely. So that especially with the - it's not only the ice making but handling the crews and making sure that our crews, our personnel are safe and secure, whatever weather that we are going to have to work through.
So it's not only the players' safety we're concerned with, but it's also our workers, as we're preparing for the event.

Q. If you believe the Weather Network, it looks like game day high could be anywhere between minus 5 and 0. It could be anywhere between minus 15 and minus 10 and it doesn't look like (inaudible) it could get?
DAN CRAIG: I missed the last part. But I did get the first part of the question. I'm sorry. Yes, in the long term that I'm looking at that's what it says is minus 5, minus 6 on game day, and it could go as low as minus 10. So those are - if I was going to pick an ideal temperature for us to have our game, it would be minus 5, minus 6. If we drop down to a minus 10 it's not going to be that - that's not a concern on my side. We just have to prepare all of our players and the equipment managers and trainers have to prepare the players to play in a safe environment.

Q. When they went over to Japan for those two games against San Jose?
DAN CRAIG: Yes.

Q. Didn't something weird happen - I was over there, didn't something weird happen to the refrigeration, wasn't it broken? And I was wondering what's the weirdest things that's happened to you through this whole process since you started doing this, what's the weirdest thing you've come across?
DAN CRAIG: What's the weirdest? We've had many challenges and I would say being in Japan, it was a very stressful one, very tough for us to handle.
And when we were in Torino for the Olympics, that was a very tough venue. The hockey, too, over there was a tough one to handle. But that's the thing is that you take your knowledge from all of these and you kind of - that's where you pull every trick out of the bag that you can and to make sure that we're having the best sheet of ice possible for the best league in the world and for the best players in the world to play on.
Because the number one thing that we always remember is that this is a league game and there's two points on the table. And that's how we prepare it.

Q. Have you ever seen, have you ever done anything in a venue before, since in Japan where they had a three-meter diving board?
DAN CRAIG: No. As a matter of fact, that is - I have pictures of that. And that is probably one of the weirdest ones that we have been up against. We've done many different things, but that one is - I don't think we'll ever top that one having the diving board at the end of the hockey rink.

Q. I imagine having done this so many times that there are probably some numbers floating around your head in terms of how much it takes to put together a rink outdoors. Sheets of plywood. Gallons of paint, tubing and panels for coolant. Are those all memorized by now?
DAN CRAIG: No. Because every - this one's going to be even a little bit different than what we've done in any of our others, because on this particular one now we have - while we have been on the road in the middle of the field, they've already put down the roadways, and this one is now built with a sandbox concept.
And then we'll cover it with plywood. And then we'll put our panels down. So once we get like February 10th, that's when we'll have knowing the exact footage of where we're parking the trailer, because the number of gallons that we use for glycol changes - it depends on the distance we are from the floor to where the trailer is right now.
So come the 10th, and then I'll be able to give you more firm numbers.

Q. So just a follow-up. Then this is something a little bit different going with the sandbox base, is that something you haven't done before, or have done before but haven't done recently?
DAN CRAIG: Well, we haven't done the sand floor. We have done a box before and we've done high density Styrofoam; and just because of the way that the weather, the unpredictability of the weather there, we just thought it would be better for us to put sand, moisturize it, because we knew because we know especially it was minus 30 -- I talked to my brother out there. Knew it was very cold. That ground is very frozen, very solid. So we figured that would be an easier way to go than trying to spend a day putting down our Styrofoam deck once we got there.

Q. Do players have any input in the quality of the ice and how the ice is prepared? I imagine that when an NHL player shows up at any of the 30 rinks he plays on what is under his skates. But in an extraordinary situation like building a rink outdoors, is there consultation with the teams? Are there baseline numbers that you have to work with that you'll be able to tell management of the two hockey clubs that will be playing here that, look, here is - you can compare what we're going to provide to roughly this rink or that rink around the NHL? How does that work?
DAN CRAIG: Well, that's a very good question. It's not so much consulting. It's just that especially when you have so many outdoor rinks in western Canada, and it's one of those things where you have a lot of guys that have grown up and played outdoors. You use their experience and use our experience on the numbers that we have done.
And you know you go - you talk to them. And you tell the coaches and tell the general managers, okay, this is what we're going to expect if it's plus 4 outside. This is what we're going to expect if it's minus 5. Because mother nature does play a big role in what we have.
And this is, even here, because the difference of playing in Boston, because you're both the ocean compared to playing in Calgary, where our air quality is a lot dryer. So you have a lot less humidity and the snow is a lot fluffier. So it's going to feel different to them.
It's going to be very fast. It's going to be a very fast sheet of ice. And that's why we're kind of looking really good at the weather right now with it being minus 5 and minus 6 because that's our ideal temperature for the guys to skate on. And we're looking for a very fast surface for these guys to play the best game that they can have on that particular day.

Q. Have you had any kind of feedback from, say, the Penguins and the Capitals, and in the past the Canadiens and Oilers, what kind of feedback do you get from players about the sheet you put under their feet?
DAN CRAIG: It varies. Because like when we were in Pittsburgh, it was a little stuff up on top. We did get some feedback. We go to the equipment managers and talk to them about how they're sharpening the skates, about the hollows they put on particular players, because we knew because of the amount of rain we had in the morning in Pittsburgh that it was going to be soft. So a couple of the guys wanted to make sure that the hollows were changed on their skates.
Compared to Edmonton, you know, it was very cold. And when it gets that cold, it starts getting a little chunky out there, starts breaking away underneath their feet. So we want to make sure we get a heat load up on top and try to keep the top end as close to that minus 5, minus 6 temperature that we possibly can.

Q. I was wondering, you're from Jasper, you know the way the weather goes around here. What was your original reaction when they said we want to put one of these things in Calgary?
DAN CRAIG: It was kind of like, well, this is what mother nature wanted us to kind of play with. It's kind of like what day. And as was commented before, you never know what you're going to be.
And I imagine that you were just there this past week, because I talked to my brother, and that was you're talking about 40-degree change in two days. And you just deal with what you deal with when you wake up in the morning. You just - you put on your coveralls and you go to work and you make things happen.
DAVID KEON: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297