throughout PNC Arena.
This all doesn't just happen on a few days notice though, not for the retail team, nor the club's equipment staff, who works for months leading up to to ensure everyone on the ice is outfitted accordingly.
Led by Bob Gorman, Canes Head Equipment Manager, the group starts its preparation for the evening in July.
Orders for the helmets, pants, sticks, and socks get submitted during the middle of the summer, but this isn't just a one-stop shop where one click of a button makes all worries go away until the night comes. As they get closer, there's more items to be prepared, including some of the more detailed aspects.
The custom-made green True-brand pads that Andersen will take the ice with? Those were discussed with the All-Star netminder back during the early fall. Gorman gets the ball rolling and a lot of the work from there is in the hands of the man wearing them himself.
"For most pads it's normally about a two month-long process, so we had time with this one," Gorman said of getting Andersen his pillows. "The way it works now with True, I get them the purchase order and Freddie can kind of take it from there. He can go right online and edit the colors of the pads, how they look and how he wants them to be."