TAMPA, Fla. — Preparations continue to transform Raymond James Stadium into a hockey venue for the NHL’s Stadium Series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins on Feb. 1.
This will be the first outdoor hockey game in a football stadium in the state of Florida. It’s a bold move, but the NHL has unpredictable weather in Tampa.
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Crews have been busy building a steel frame for the tent, which will serve as the structure to protect the regulation-sized area from the sun and rain.
“Pretty damn cool, to be honest,” Lightning captain Victor Hedman said. “You know, beautiful weather today. Hopefully, this temperature will be the same on February 1. Just looking around here, I’ve been coming here for years to watch football, and getting the chance to play outside here.”
For Hedman, the Stadium Series event represents a new challenge for a franchise seasoned by success.
“Us as a team and an organization, that’s been to three straight finals, won a lot, a couple of Cups, always in the playoff hunt,” Hedman said. “The Lightning is a team looked upon as one of the best in the NHL. It’s fitting for us to get an outdoor game, that’s for sure.”
The league will use two mobile refrigeration trucks to make the ice for the NHL’s 45th outdoor game. The ice will measure between 2 1/2 to three inches thick, nearly double the depth of an indoor rink.
“As a player, you look at the bounces off the walls, the ice quality is harder or softer,” Hedman said. “You can make small adjustments for your skates regarding that, the way you sharpen them.”
Temperature and humidity will be the biggest variables on game day. But the hope is that the refrigeration trucks and protective tent will make outdoor hockey possible in Florida.
“If we’re 75 at puck drop, it’ll be a bit of a challenge for us,” Andrew Higgins, NHL’s facility and operations manager, said. “That’s why we both brought both of our refrigeration units. Those will be working hard if we’re at 75, but the forecast looks like we’ll be in the mid-to-low 60s, which is pretty much perfect for us. It’s the same sort of conditions we have in our venues, so that’ll be ideal if it holds true."
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