On the field were the remnants of the most recent event at the home of baseball's Boston Red Sox, the 2022 Wasabi Fenway Bowl between football teams from the University of Cincinnati and University of Louisville. But it won't be long before any memory of football hash marks will be wiped away and the scene set for the NHL to take over the historic ballpark for the second time in its history, this time for the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins to face off on Jan. 2 (2 p.m. ET; TNT, TVAS, SN).
"That event moved out. We have now moved in," said Derek King, NHL senior director, facilities operations & hockey operations. "The armor deck will go down and will cover pretty much the entire field. And then we'll start putting down our stage decking. The aluminum pans will go on top. And then from that, we'll start making ice, dasher boards will get installed, the acrylic will get installed."
King had arrived in Boston the evening before, set to help direct the building of the rink as the time ticks down to game time. His ice crew numbers about 18 people in Boston, but including all the people involved in the production, including from MLB Advanced Media, it is closer to 80 to 100.
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"Today is a pretty busy day for the guys doing all the on-field work and then tomorrow will be a really busy day for us doing all the piping," said King, who got to see Fenway Park for the first time Monday.
King wasn't with the NHL the last time the League played at Fenway Park, back in 2010 for the third Winter Classic, but he's learned enough over the past 11 years of outdoor builds to be ready for anything that's to come.
"It's really a team approach," King said. "We've got a couple of guys that were here the last time we had a game at Fenway. And we learn something new every year. Obviously, you can't control the outdoor elements, but how we do the build, look at the schedules, and just fine-tuning some of the stuff we do the with the truck, all that new technology has really helped us."