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All right, you know what I want to think about? I want to think about the ice at Carter-Fidley Stadium. It looks like the rink is down, so let's talk to the man who makes the ice.

He is the ice man himself, senior director of facilities and hockey operations for the NHL, Derek King. How's it going over there? There's definitely a team of us here at Carter-Fidley Stadium, so it's, everything's gone really well. We're in good shape leading up to practice day. All right, so tell me where we are in, I mean, if you had to play the game today, if they said, you know what, we've got Hurricane Ellen coming in here tomorrow. We need to play the game right now. Could they play a hockey game on that rink?

Probably not right now. We just finished installing lines and logos last night, so we moved up our schedule just a little bit with some of the weather that we're seeing this week. So last night we painted the sheet white to give it that nice white bright look, and then right after that we installed all the hockey markings along with the, you know, the Center Ice logo and all our partnership and sponsorship logos in there. Gotta get the sponsorship.

That's where we are right now. We got about 2,500 gallons of water down last night, so we're, you know, maybe a quarter inch over top of that, and our goal is to to get about three quarters to an inch of ice over top of the lines, and I think by Thursday night right now we're tracking to to be finished, and we'll get the teams on Friday afternoon. How long does it take? Okay, so once you get everything down, we're talking with Derek King of the NHL. He's the Iceman. When you, once you get all the logos and we have to get the sponsorship stuff correct, otherwise that's a lot of money that has to go back. How long does it take, when all of that stuff is done, how long does it take to get the playing surface done, the ice? Well, the ice, you know, we're looking at seven days of ice making, so once we get the lines and logos in, we want to get a good inch of ice over top of that, so we had some help in this build early on with some rain, which saved our guys some time, but, you know, we froze as much rain as we could. We removed the rain when it fell, and then right now we're covered. It's tonight's bright and sunny day here, so we're taking advantage, getting some other jobs complete today. We have the shielding going up tomorrow, so we're starting to put all the post stanchions in today.

The glass will go in tomorrow, and we'll finish that up on Thursday. We have a few skates planned for Thursday night, and then, you know, looking ahead to the forecast, we have some rain Friday, early morning, afternoon, so we'll, we have a plan for that. We'll tackle that, and hopefully the weather will cooperate for Friday, and, you know, Saturday's forecast right now looks really good, so, you know, we're excited to get this game going. What is the ideal weather for you? What are the ideal weather conditions for you in the lead up to prepare the ice for use? You know, obviously going into this build, we knew that the weather was, you know, the weather could be all over the place here in Raleigh, so we built our schedule knowing that, so we knew that, you know, the days we could see sun like we're seeing today, so we knew going in that we would cover the sheet during the day, build overnight, and then like I said, and then, you know, we had some rain the last few days, so we use that to our advantage where we froze what we could freeze with the rain falling, and now we're on schedule. We're in good shape here, so looking to Saturday, obviously with the night game, you know, if we're in the mid-50s to the low 50s, I think we're going to be in really good shape. For the last couple of weeks, I have been staring at the long-term forecast, and I know about eight or nine days ago, I looked, and it said this entire week, it was going to rain for like four days, and it was going to be nearly 70, and then miraculously enough, Saturday looked clear, and then who cares about what happens after, although the ice is going to be used on Monday.

We'll get to that in a second. Did you panic when you saw what the weather forecast was maybe two weeks ago? No, you know what, we've done a number of these games, right, so we know that we need to follow the weather, obviously. We have a plan in place for, you know, different types of weather patterns that we see, so we have a really experienced crew. You know, we've got a crew of about 14 guys that have done a number of games, so they look after pretty much the ice build, and we kind of get to sit back and we kind of look at the important stuff and changes to the schedule and stuff like that, so the weather changes all the time and we just go with those changes. There's not much we can do.

We're not going to change the weather, so we just need to adapt to what we're going to have. I think Gary Bettman can actually change the weather. Derek King is joining us, Senior Director of Facilities and Hockey Operations for the National Hockey League.

He is the Iceman. Did Carter-Finley Stadium, an older stadium, doesn't have the most incredible infrastructure technologically speaking that we've ever seen, did it present problems or challenges for you that you don't face, certainly with more modern stadiums? No, we're, you know, the stadium has been great. We haven't really faced any issues. You know, the staff here to work with have been great. We've been working with some of the guys over from the PNC Arena who've been helping us out. For us, really, it's just been a little bit of a longer pipe run, but, you know, we've faced those challenges before and, you know, we've got the technology on our side with the ice plant truck and some of the stuff that we use, equipment, so it's been a really good build here with the stadium. Will you get on the ice before?

Do you personally test it? No, our staff does. We're definitely going to have a nice crew skate. We've got a media skate as well, so there's a number of groups that will get on that sheet, and we always look for feedback, but, you know, really for us is practice day for the teams is practice day for us. We can kind of fine-tune the truck and what it's going to do and then just looking ahead to Saturday with the weather that we're going to have. You know, we get feedback from the players, so once they hit the ice, we'll speak to the field of players after practice, and we'll make changes for what we need to do on Saturday. A couple more things real quick for Derek King of the NHL.

He's in charge of the ice at Carter-Finley Stadium, Canes and Caps. Just after eight o'clock, I believe it'll be an 8-20 opening face-off, if I get the timeline correct, that I was sent by the league. We all know that rain is bad for a game like this. Snow is also bad for a game like this. Is any other weather a problem for you that you would be worried about, that you would have to adjust something, or as long as it isn't, we don't have stuff falling from the sky, it's all good? Yeah, you know, we've had some games in the past where we've had a light rain or we have a light snow, and I think that kind of adds to the game, especially if you get a light snow, but you know, looking at the forecast right now with puck drop, you know, I think we're going to be clear skies. Obviously a night game is to our benefit, so you know, that's what we're going to look to gear up for, and we'll definitely be ready for that. I think, was the last day game the one at Tahoe where it was too sunny?

Yeah, Tahoe presented some challenges. I think that was the first time we had to delay a game, but you know, again, looking at the forecast going in, it was supposed to be a cloudy day, and you know, from what happened, there were clouds all around us, and obviously over top of the rink, the sun popped out, and we faced some challenges, but you know, we learned from those challenges, and we were able to delay the game, and you know, we played later than we wanted to, but we got those two games in, which was our plan. Norma, you know, you know, normally I'm going to guess that when the game is over, you break it down and you leave, but there are two games that are going to be played on it Monday, so a day off in between. There's going to be an alumni game for the Hurricanes and a club hockey game between NC State and North Carolina on that sheet of ice, and that is absolutely awesome for those two groups of people that are going to play in it. So how, who's footing the bill for this?

I would imagine it's expensive to keep that ice operable for another 48 hours. For the ones finding new ways to ensure the job always gets done. For the ones wearing many hats. For the ones who are hands-on, even from far away. And the ones keeping business moving forward. We are Grainger, offering professional-grade industrial supplies, plus real-time product availability and access to experts ready to answer your toughest questions.

Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. Yeah, you know, we like to look into, you know, the options to keep the ice in, obviously, and I think it's great to have those games and get different groups on the ice. I'm not really privy to the financial part of that. I kind of look at the ice build overall, so.

But I think it's great. We get some of our partnership marketing groups out there. We have some, you know, obviously after the team skates, they have the family skates, which I think is really important. So, you know, for us, this is only a couple days. We've definitely had some longer builds. We just left Winter Classic at Fenway, and, you know, we were there for, I think, about 10 days after the game, full of skates. So for us, this is a short extension, but we're definitely happy to do it for those groups. Derek, thank you so much. The Iceman, appreciate your time.

Senior Director, Facilities and Hockey Operations for the National Hockey League. Can you, do you skate or no? Oh, absolutely. Okay. But I, you know, a little too busy, so I would, I'd love to get out there, but, you know, we'll get a number of groups out there to test that sheet out, and yeah, it's gonna be a great event. I cannot wait. Saturday night, 8-20 opening face-off, but we'll be out there pretty much all afternoon.

I can, cannot wait. To, Stormwatch and the Pre and Post and the Network will all come from ringside, so that'll be the closest I have been to a hockey game in a long, long time. I'm normally on the fifth floor. Yeah, you're up in the ceiling. Yeah, we basically are, but on Saturday we'll be right at the side of the rink, so that should be a lot of fun.