Men's Journal

For the NHL’s 2010 Winter Classic, Dan Craig built a league-size hockey rink in Fenway Park. He explains how he and his crew did it amid Boston’s snowstorms and squalls.

Interviewed by John Cookson

On New Year’s Day, the Boston Bruins will host the Philadelphia Flyers on a fresh frozen ice sheet spanning Fenway Park’s first and third bases. Facility Operations Manager Dan Craig is the NHL’s point man for bringing the ice to the field, overseeing everything from the 3,000 gallons of coolant and 20,000 gallons of water to the 300-ton, custom-built refrigeration truck, all to make sure the rink is ready when the puck drops at 1 p.m. EST on January 1. We caught up with Craig on December 28 as he was putting the finishing touches on the ice — and battling a week of inclement weather.

MJ: What does it take to build an ice rink in Fenway Park?

DC: We pulled in here probably two weeks ago now. We first made sure that the base was level, and we have insulation underneath to protect the turf and the clay and to make sure we don’t have any frost that will cause issues for the ballpark staff once we leave. Then we put an Armor Deck — an interlocking floor — over the top of that. And then, above that we put our aluminum refrigeration floor. We tied all that together and put it on top of pipes, and all the piping goes back to the refrigeration truck.

How does building ice outdoors at Fenway differ from setting up a standard indoor NHL rink?

You have to be really careful outside. When you are making natural ice, it freezes from the top down, and we don’t want to do that because it tends to create shell ice. So, instead, we have to build up in very small, thin layers, which takes a lot of time with the guys on the hoses. It’s painstaking, hour after hour, 16 hours a day, one end of the rink to the other.

Is the rink ready for the game on Friday?

It’s not quite ready to go. We have in-ice logos to put in tonight; we were ready to put them in, but it started to rain, so we had to back off for three or four hours. Guys worked all through the night doing the hockey ice markings last night; they’ll be back here at about five o’clock tonight and we’ll attempt to get in the in-ice logos, build ice over the top of that, and put the Zambonis on tomorrow afternoon. Then we’ll be ready to skate.

Can you tell me about the refrigeration truck?

It’s a 53-foot, 300-ton truck we had designed and built for the NHL specifically for this event to pump coolant through piping under the ice, keeping it frozen, for the weather we’re going into and the rain that we’ve been having. Yesterday we had pretty heavy rain and it was over 50 degrees here, and we still froze up the sheet pretty solid.

So you’re following the weather closely?

We’re watching it every four hours, just trying to find our spots to get the work done. We’re looking out in advance to see what sorts of systems may be coming from the North, which ones are coming from the South, which ones can affect us. We’ve split our crew in half because we’re working through the night. Because it is so warm during the day, we let Mother Nature help us as much as she can. Mother Nature only gives you what Mother Nature gives you, and you can’t get out there and make it work any faster. So you have to be patient. I’ve got a crew of nine, 10 guys out there that are antsy and ready to go, but you have to pull them back and say, “We have to wait an extra half-hour so that we can get this done properly.”

Anything unexpected this year?

The only difference, because I don’t live in this area, is learning the weather systems. We plan six months in advance. We have meetings and we just look our crew square in the eye and say, “Guys, we were brought out here to do this job, and by the way you’re coming back at midnight and you are working until 10 o’clock tomorrow morning.” A lot of lost sleep and a lot of sweat goes into it.

What happens to the rink after the game?

We have two college games we are doing the following weekend, and we have some community sponsorship skates in between, so the citizens can enjoy the great park in the middle of Fenway.

How will you tear it down? Can’t exactly let it melt, right?

Just reverse what we did to put it up. Literally, you break the ice off the panels so you have great big ice cubes that you put in dumpster bins, and then you take it away. Then you pump down the floor and the truck, and our parts are gone within 48 hours.

Do you have a prediction for the game, Flyers or Bruins?

Nope. We put everything together, the teams come out and play a good game, and everybody has fun.

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Broadcast coverage of the Winter Classic at Fenway Park begins at 1 p.m. EST this Friday, January 1, 2010, on NBC.