Ice Build Begins at Nissan Stadium Ahead of Stadium Series in Nashville

Just about every type of vehicle has rolled down Broadway in the heart of Nashville at one point or another, but on Sunday afternoon, a semi truck with the NHL's logo turned some heads as it traversed down the street and across the Cumberland River to its home for the next two weeks.
That truck is now parked at Nissan Stadium, and after months of anticipation of the NHL's 2022 Stadium Series coming to the Music City, aluminum pans began to go down on the field Monday afternoon.
In turn, that step brought an overarching realization to the process - this is all really going to happen, and for the first time ever, the Predators are going to play under a Tennessee sky.

The NHL's Senior Manager of Facilities Operations & Hockey Operations Derek King - who will oversee the build of a game-ready rink over the turf - and his crew have quite a task ahead of them, but it's nothing they can't handle.
"It's pretty cool to actually be here and to start the work now," King said Monday afternoon from the stadium with an "armor deck" being placed panel by panel on the field. "Once that's down today, we'll start to do the stage deck where the rink is going to go. And then, we've just finished parking the ice plant and generator, so we'll start all of our piping and all of our builds later this afternoon. So, a lot of stuff is going on. It's pretty busy, but it's pretty cool to be in Nashville to do this game."
Each build brings unique challenges, and this time will be no different. Perhaps most notable, the forecast calls for temperatures upwards of 70 degrees Fahrenheit this week in Nashville, but there's an easy way around that, too.
"With how the sun is during the day, a lot of our ice build will be overnight," King explained. "We'll cover the rink during the day. There's really no sense in trying to fight Mother Nature, we'll just adapt our schedule to what we need to do."

That tweak to deal with the elements means a lot of 18-hour days leading into Feb. 25 when the Preds and the Tampa Bay Lightning will practice ahead of the game one night later. King says a day crew and night crew will be used throughout the process, and technicians from both the Preds and Lightning will also assist in the process, including Nigel Schnarr, Nashville's senior ice manager who handles things at Bridgestone Arena.
The next four days, King says, will be spent assembling the rink itself and getting piping in place, and a six-to-seven-day process to actually build the ice will follow. When both teams practice next Friday, the sessions will also serve as a dry run for King and his crew to "get everything dialed in" before the real thing.
Ultimately, King says the ice will be upwards of two inches thick at the stadium - a thicker sheet of ice than an indoor facility - to allow for a bit of a "safety buffer" if weather does become an issue. But the scheduled puck drop on Feb. 26 - set for 6:30 p.m. CT as of now - should certainly help with the sun gone at that point in the day and a cooler temperature likely.
"If we have a cloudy day on game day, that's fine, especially practice day, but game day, we're going to be at night," King said. "If we're in the low 50s, mid 50s, that'd be a pretty good setup for us."
Until then, King and his team will be working around the clock to give the city of Nashville something never seen before, no matter the amount of piping needed to get from the mobile refrigeration unit to the ice surface itself.

"Basically, what we've done is we've taken an indoor NHL facility ice rink; we've put it in a 53-foot trailer, and then it's really just the whole length of the pipe run," King said. "We're going to run piping from the trailer down to the field, and instead of a concrete floor, we have aluminum pans. So, that's what we're going to cool, and we'll build the ice on top of that… We have a pretty hectic schedule, and it's going to be a lot of hours, but we have a really good crew here. A lot of the guys have worked outdoor games before… Once we get into the ice making, it'll be an 18-hour day for everyone. So, it's going to be some long hours, but it's what we do, and we love what we do."
Like the players who will take the ice in due time, King and his team are the best in the world at what they do. A balmy day doesn't scare them, and while the days - and nights - are long, it's all worth it once another stadium, built for a different kind of spectacle, hosts a game that will never be forgotten.
And once the puck drops?
"It's kind of a relief once the game gets going," King said. "Once the players hit the ice, we can take a big breath and get the game going. But it's cool to do what we're able to do… Being in Nashville, it's pretty exciting."