Fenway Park Begins Transformation into Frozen Hockey Pond

The transformation of Fenway Park from baseball cathedral to high-class backyard hockey rink began on Thursday.

The refrigeration truck used to create the sheet of ice for the NHL 2010 Winter Classic between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers has arrived. For the crew in charge of building the rink, now the long days and sleepless nights begin. "The last thing I think about now," said league facilities manager Dan Craig, "is how much sleep I'm going to get in the next three weeks."

The NHL's Ice Man can only control what he can control. As league Senior VP of Events Don Renzulli said on Thursday, "The one thing we cannot control is Mother Nature." If the New Year's Day game has to be postponed, the make-up date is Jan. 2.

Starting next week, Craig and his staff will begin making ice. There will be fine sprays on the surface just yards from the Green Monster -- fine sprays for 16 hours a day. The full sheet will be completed on Dec. 26.

Craig has just about all the answers to the challenge of building an outdoor rink in a 97-year-old stadium, for a hockey game in a town where freezing temperatures are not a 100 percent given during the holidays.

A strong sun in Boston will not negatively effect the Winter Classic rink. The Bruins-Flyers game in three weeks begins at 1:00 pm and the Fenway field had full shade on Thursday at 1:22 pm.

Warm weather will not cause a postponement. Craig reports that the 53-foot ice truck has been set closer to the ice surface at Fenway than any of the previous NHL outdoor games. "If we have a warm day, it's not a concern," said Craig.

The only concern is severe precipitation. Renzulli said any postponement of the game on Jan. 1 would be "out of concern for the players and the fans." But this isn't anything they can plan for until New Year's Eve at the earliest.

So for the next three weeks, the league will prepare for its biggest and most-viewed regular season event of the season. They've let Boston Red Sox management -- and especially the Fenway growds crew -- know they will act as proper guests.

"When we leave the stadium," said Craig, "it will be like we were never here."