WINNIPEG- The refrigeration trucks have rolled into town, and preparations for the 2016 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic are underway.
"We've started putting the armour deck down on the field, and started building the stage which the ice pans and the rink will actually be supported on," said Mike Craig, the NHL's Senior Manager of Facilities Operations. "We're getting ready to run our pipes off the refrigeration truck, and basically we're right on schedule right where we should be."
Craig and his team have that schedule down to a science. After the staging is done, the dasher boards will start to go up as early as Oct. 13.
"It'll start to look like a rink out there for sure by that point," said Craig. "Hopefully by the evening or afternoon of the 14th we'll be spraying water and making ice out there."
Preparations underway at Investors Group Field
Rink and ice-building process has begun for Heritage Classic