BOSTON — A rainy New Year’s Eve required the ice crew to work overtime, but the rink was ready for the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins to practice Sunday, and everything is on track for the 2023 Discover NHL Winter Classic at Fenway Park on Monday (2 pm ET ; TNT, SN, TVAS).
The Penguins and Bruins will play in the NHL’s 36th regular season outdoor game at the 110-year-old home of the Boston Red Sox, which was also the venue for the 2010 Winter Classic between the Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers.
“We knew the weather that we were going to get so we had a plan in place for yesterday,” NHL senior director of facilities and hockey operations Derek King said before the Bruins took the ice. “We had a crew that worked through New Year’s. A few of us were able to take a few hours off. But we basically pushed water all night, it cleared up this morning and this is kind of where we’re at. Everything went according to plan.”
King said the weather forecast for Monday calls for more sun than he would have hoped, but at this point it’s nothing that should cause the start time of the game to be pushed back.
The crew uses insulated tarps to cover the ice sheet to protect it when it’s not being used.
“We’ll cover the sheet tonight and we’ll watch the weather we’re going to get tonight,” King said. “We’ll keep it covered right up until the very last minute. We have a plan in place to uncover really close to warmup and we’ll see what Mother Nature throws at us tomorrow.”
The sun was almost completely off the ice shortly after 2 pm ET Sunday except for the corner of the rink closest to right-center field. But that was shaded by 2:30, which means sun glare should not be a problem during the game.
However, King said keeping the sheet covered through the morning and into the afternoon before the Penguins and Bruins take the ice for warmups is essential to protect the lines and logos.
“The logos, especially the center ice logos, those are the areas that we’ve got to pay close attention to,” he said. “We’ll move our tarps and follow the sun.”
The fact that the temperature could be in the low 50s is not a problem either, King said.
“We’ve got the equipment in place where we can monitor,” King said. “We know the weather that is coming, we know we’ll be in the 50s, so we can plan ahead, we can get that sheet a little bit colder and we can make adjustments throughout the evening and throughout the day right through gametime. “
King said the crew built a thicker sheet of ice over the lines and logos to protect them in case of weather like the rain that came through Boston on Saturday.
“We typically like [the ice] to run maybe two or two and a half inches [thick],” King said. “We’re over that, but that’s going to help us. It’s a stronger sheet. We can do a lot more cutting. We have the practices, so we’ll have a good workout on that sheet, a few more skates tonight and it’ll give us some time tonight to do some maintenance on it as well.”
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