SUNRISE, Fla. — Have you ever wondered who's in charge of making and maintaining the ice during the season and into the playoffs for the Florida Panthers, or any NHL team?
Graham Caplinger is aptly named the "Ice Man." He admits his job is a niche job.
"Most certainly," he said.
In fact, Caplinger is one of just 32 directors of ice operations in the National Hockey League.
He says there's an art to making ice — one that requires lots of water, cold temperatures and patience.
"I come in on a day when there's nothing going on. At that point I'll turn on the refrigeration and it takes about 24 hours to come down from 70 degrees to about 15 degrees," he said.
The ice for the Florida Panthers is made on a floating pad of concrete that's frozen. The ice pad stands alone because it expands and contracts. Once the floor is frozen, several layers of ice are made and a base layer of white paint is sprayed on top of that.
"That takes about two hours, then we'll put several layers of water on top of that and that's when we break out all the painting of the logos, the lines, and all the colors that go into the paint," he said.
Once all the painting is finished, Caplinger adds more water slowly. How much water? Usually about 12,000 gallons.
"That'll give me an inch of ice that used to be the standard which we all strive for in the NHL and other places. Now we go a little bit thicker, maybe an inch and a quarter just to give us a little bit more wiggle room during a hockey game. We're always taking away more than we're laying down. So that inch of ice will start going down two or three games later, and you can only skate on a half an inch of ice, at least the big guys," he said.
An NHL hockey rink is 85 feet wide and 200 feet long. Caplinger says 100 layers of ice is his mark.
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"So, we try to go real thin layers. I used to think of it as a big office building with a hundred floors as opposed to a big warehouse with no floors. There's more structural integrity with a building that has floors as opposed to a big open space," he said.
The goal is to keep the surface temperature around 20 to 21 degrees. Caplinger says players can feel the difference if that temperature varies.
"When our guys come into the building, they know what it's going to feel like, the equipment guys know what they need to do for their skates," he said.
Caplinger takes great pride in his job, one where he believes games can be won and lost.
He says when he's hard at work making ice, he isn't the only one watching. He says the NHL has a camera set up at every team's facility that oversees the work that's being done. And, if needed, a call from the home office will be made if something needs to be fixed.
