The Bruins are set for an outdoor game on February 1st against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bruins will visit the Lightning at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. This game marks the 6th outdoor game for the Boston Bruins, who rank second in the NHL for outdoor wins (4-1-0).
This Stadium Series game marks just the second NHL outdoor game in the state of Florida. The other game happened earlier this month when the Florida Panthers took on the New York Rangers at LoanDepot Park in Miami for the annual NHL Winter Classic on January 2nd.
Boston sports fans may be familiar with Raymond James Stadium as it is also home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where legendary Patriots quarterback Tom Brady finished his career.
Winter Classic vs Stadium Series
Although the Winter Classic in Miami was largely a success for the NHL, there is a key difference between the two hosting stadiums. LoanDepot Park has a retractable roof, and Raymond James Stadium does not. For the Winter Classic, the NHL chose to retract the roof just prior to the start of the game to maintain an ideal environment for the ice.
With temperatures this past week reaching the mid 80’s in Tampa Bay and with the Buccaneers stadium missing the roof, how is the NHL going to keep the ice from melting?
How are they keeping the ice?
The answer is surprisingly simple, as the NHL has built an air-conditioned tent to go over the entire ice surface.
"We got the structure completed for our rink covering," Dean Matsuzaki, NHL executive vice president of events, said Friday at the home of NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "And now today, we're getting going on covering, pulling the vinyl over to start sealing in, and we'll start installing the HVAC units pretty soon.”
According to Matsuzaki, the temperature inside the tent will be in the mid to low 50’s in addition to multiple refrigeration trucks running coolant to the ice surface. Usually, in an outdoor game, the NHL has one refrigeration truck cooling the ice while the other is used as a spare, but like the Winter Classic in Miami, they will be running both trucks at the same time during the game.
The plan is to remove the tent prior to the game on Sunday night, which will take several hours according to Matsuzaki. At that point the hockey operations team has a plan to add reflective, insulated tarps over the ice to protect the surface from the heat and sun until puck-drop at 6:30pm.
Luckily, the temperatures will also cool this week, ranging from the 40’s to 60’s for most of the week and a high of 56 degrees for gameday on Sunday. Along with the ice surface being constantly monitored this week, the tent will remain over the ice until the game on Sunday. Both the Bruins and Lightning will have practice on Saturday under the tent.
The NHL had an ambitious goal to have multiple outdoor games in Florida this year, and now they are on the brink of having two in just one month. With the league now incorporating new techniques for the outdoor games, the NHL has shown true mastery at hosting outdoor games almost anywhere. If this Stadium Series proves to be another success, it will be a huge win for the NHL and its future events.