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It's All About Ice

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By CARTER GADDIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 26, 2007

TAMPA - It's alive. The ice, that is.

Not in the biological, breathing-in-and-out sense that defines much of the life on this planet.

But to Tim Friedenberger, it often seems as if the massive sheet of frozen water at the St. Pete Times Forum has a mind of its own. And if it can think ...

"It is alive," said Friedenberger, the Forum's vice president of facility operations. "It's a living thing. I'd say every facility, the ice has a personality."

Like any living thing, a sheet of ice has its good days and bad. A unique facet of the NHL is how vulnerable the aesthetics of the game itself can be to the vagaries of the playing surface.

Particularly in the NHL's post-lockout world, with its heavier emphasis on up-and-down, speed-oriented hockey, it has become more important than ever around the league to mitigate the bad days and duplicate the good.

"Our players, No. 1, want hard, fast sheets of ice," said NHL facilities manager Dan Craig, who earned his reputation as the NHL's "ice guru" by cultivating some of the league's best ice, by reputation, for the Edmonton Oilers. "We want the players, when they're skating, to be on top of the ice. We want the best glide available, with a limited amount of snow so that the puck can move quickly. Because speed is the name of our game.

"It is scary what a skilled player can do on a good sheet of ice."

But when the inevitable snow buildup begins to freeze and create an uneven surface because of high traffic and high humidity, it can change the way players approach the game.

"What it does is, sometimes you're cautious of the puck bouncing, so instead of making that quick play, you might want to hang onto it and settle it down," said Hurricanes captain and 18-year veteran Rod Brind'Amour. "Maybe it takes a little of that away. Or maybe you see some great scoring chance, and it gets passed over a guy's stick when it would've been a tap-in. And that happens. It's the same for both teams. It's not ever an advantage or a disadvantage. Everyone's playing on it."

The trouble is that most arenas are at the mercy of the greatest enemies known to ice: inherently high temperatures (especially in Southern climates), high humidity and Hannah Montana.

Humidity can be battled, to some extent, by using the arena's refrigerant system to lower the core temperature and by sealing off the rink from outside air. At the Forum, a wall and large retractable door were installed to create a more reliable barrier between the ice surface and the loading dock area in the southeast corner of the building.

Far more complicated for facilities managers around the league is contending with other events in the arena, such as Hannah Montana concerts, bull-riding competitions or basketball games.

"Out of the 30 guys we have in this league that make ice," Friedenberger said, "if they did not have to contend with other events, they would all have great sheets of ice. There's no doubt about it."

Not every arena does have a "great" sheet of ice, though.

"I think that's definitely one area where I think the league could probably spend some money to probably make it better," Brind'Amour said. "Because I don't think they've done anything - it doesn't seem like - over the years where it's gotten a lot better."

Outside of improving the way Zamboni machines resurface the rink before games and between periods, and aside from switching from plywood floor covering to a thermal floor covering that absorbs less moisture from the ice, advances in protecting the integrity of the ice from the time the puck is dropped until the final horn have been relatively minimal.

And don't think it doesn't matter to the players and coaches. When Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella made pointed comments about the condition of the Forum ice after the first couple of games this season, Friedenberger took it personally.

"Certainly we do," he said. "I take a lot of pride in what I do, and so do our ice techs that work on the ice. That's the last thing anybody wants to hear."

There is a good give-and-take between his department and the Lightning staff, Friedenberger said. And, generally, the ice at the Forum has a good reputation.

"It's gotten better," Lightning center Vinny Lecavalier said. "It's a lot better than other places."

There are, in fact, official NHL rankings for the 30 ice surfaces. They're based on reports Craig's office receives from officials after each game.

Ostensibly, the purpose of the rankings is to help those arenas with generally poor ice surfaces understand where they fall short and what they need to do to improve. The facilities operators around the league communicate with Craig and with each other on a regular basis.

They even have an Internet message board to trade ideas on ice maintenance.

The rankings are kept secret from the public. Although Craig said there isn't much distinction from No. 8 to No. 24, that ice surfaces generally are consistent throughout the league, the rankings do provide a pecking order - and it's a point of pride for ice tenders everywhere to be ranked high.

"You would not believe the phone calls," Craig said. "The top five is the elite of the elite, and it's 'How come I'm No. 6?' There's a great deal of pride."

Although the rankings are secret, it's believed the ice at the St. Pete Times Forum has ranked in the top 10 consistently for the past few seasons. Not an easy accomplishment for a rink in the state of Florida, where Friedenberger spends most of his waking hours trying to interpret the "mood" of his frozen friend on a given day.

"I mean, it's an art," Friedenberger said. "There's a lot of trying different things and failing, and then trying a lot of different things and have them be successful. And that's what we all do across the league."

Reporter Carter Gaddis can be reached at (813) 259-8291 or igaddis@tampatrib.com.

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