Dan Craig is the National Hockey League's foremost expert on making ice for outdoor spectacles and he has the battle scars to prove it.
The 57-year-old ice guru suffered frost bite on two toes after spending 15 hours in minus-22 Fahrenheit (-30C) conditions during the NHL's first regular season outdoor game at Edmonton in 2003.
"I was outside on skates from 5am to 10pm," explained Craig who is in charge of building the rink for the first ever NHL outdoor game in California on Saturday between the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks.
Craig won't have to worry about freezing toes or fingers at Dodger Stadium because the temperature is expected to be in the low-80s during the day and the mid-to-high 50s in the evening when the game starts.
There will be no shivering masses or wind-chill factor to worry about. Hockey fans will be dressed in shorts and sandals and instead of snow-covered grounds, the iconic baseball stadium -- with its mountain views -- will have palm trees, sand and a beach volleyball court next to the outdoor rink.
"Twenty five years ago no one would have envisioned two California teams playing an outdoor game here in Los Angeles," said NHL's all-time leading scorer Wayne Gretzky, who is helping put on the show.
"I always said it is going to be special when we get to play an outdoor game when it is weather like this. You will see people in t-shirts, shorts and running shoes."
Gretzky was speaking on Monday when the league's 53-foot mobile ice plant arrived so Craig's crew could begin building the rink and making the ice.
Craig said they would use aluminium panels along the rink boards to reflect the sun's rays away from the surface and special insulated blankets overtop the ice during the day to make sure it doesn't melt.
"When sun goes down that's when we come in and start working," Craig said. "At 4am it is 52 degrees. And when sun comes up, we go to bed.
"Everything that is in the ice plants at Staples Center and the Honda Center is in that truck."
Craig said it would take them eight days to build the Dodger Stadium rink and just 48 hours to dismantle. The technology has come a long way. By comparison, the Commonwealth Stadium rink in 2003, for the game between Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens, took three weeks to build and 10 days to tear down."
Craig said about 200 people will work on this project, including his crew of just over 10, who will spend countless hours spraying water to make the ice.
Like Craig, several of his employees got their start building outdoor rinks in the Canadian ski resort of Jasper, Alberta. The scenic community of just 4,000 people, is nestled high in the Canadian Rockies and is surrounded by glacier-fed lakes and rivers.
"My guys will walk 10 miles in a shift spraying the panels. Once the water hits those panels it will be frozen," Craig said.
He said the markings and logos are one of the last things to add to the ice surface and then the glass along the boards will complete the rink.
From Jasper, Craig worked several years in Bonneyville, Alberta before moving to Edmonton in 1987 to work at Northlands Coliseum, the home of the Oilers.
Craig takes great pride in being known as the world's best ice maker and he goes to great lengths to reinforce that title.
He says the Dodger Stadium ice has to be kept at 22 degrees. He has a series of ice sensors hooked up to an alarm system which he monitors 24 hours.
He doesn't want a repeat of what happened earlier this month at the NHL's outdoor game in Detroit, Michigan where he was awaken at 2:30am when the temperature plunged to just eight degrees.
With Los Angeles' highly predictable weather that shouldn't be a problem this time. Even with the unseasonably warm temperatures in the 80s this week in southern California, the rink is expected to be in great shape by game time.
"The ice is going to be fantastic," said Gretzky.
Source: DSG
