Ice rage

Photo Illustration: Jamie Divecchio Ramsay; Skates and Goat, istockphoto.com; Mask, Matt Garland/Pro-masque Corp; Blackhawks Logo, Courtesy of the Chicago Blackhawks

They began arriving earlier this week. Elite members of NHL ice crews flew into Chicago from cities around the league to assist the guru of frozen water, Wisconsinite Dan Craig, in a never-before-attempted task. Craig, the 53-year-old facilities-operations manager of the NHL, started obsessing over the Weather Channel and keeping his eyes on the sky. Metalworkers constructed five massive aluminum plates, which are being pulled through the Friendly Confines’ lone utility entrance to form the foundation for this one-of-a-kind rink. Sure, it seems easy in your freezer, but making hockey ice is a meticulous craft. The slightest variation in texture or surface temperature can make skates go goofy and snap a player’s ankle or slow the game. And, though he’s constructed rinks in far-away places, like Japan, and in unlikely places, like a football stadium, Craig has never before put a hockey rink on a baseball diamond.

Photo: Courtesy of the NHL

We’d like to think the NHL selected Wrigley Field for its second annual Winter Classic because the Blackhawks are one of the league’s original six teams. Turns out, meteorology had more to do with the decision. In his Canadian accent, Craig tells us the NHL examined weather patterns for the last 15 years when choosing a location, looking for a setting neither too warm nor too frigid. The Hawks’ bitter history with their Motown rivals, the Red Wings, is just icing on the, well, ice.

These teams hate each other. When the skaters face off at noon on New Year’s Day, it will be the 701st meeting between the two franchises—the most between any two NHL clubs. Our hometown boys have some ground to make up, trailing in the series 261–353–84. Here is what to keep an eye on—besides the thermometer—once the puck drops.

The uniforms
When coffee tycoon Frederic McLaughlin bought the Portland Rosebuds in 1926 and moved them to Chicago, he stole the nickname of his former infantry division and turned to his celebrity wife, Irene Castle, to design the jerseys. A ballroom-dancing sensation and silent-film star, Castle sketched up a sweater with horizontal black and white stripes and a logo based on Chief Black Hawk of the Sauk tribe of Illinois. The commemorative jerseys Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews will sport on New Year’s Day are slight variations on the original, but they preserve the old-school cool. Naturally, they’re available at shop.nhl.com.

The curse
The Cubs don’t hold a monopoly on local sports hexes—an angry ex-coach placed a wicked spell on the Blackhawks a couple of decades before anyone dreamed of dragging a goat into Wrigley. After a mediocre inaugural season, McLaughlin fired his head coach, Pete Muldoon. A scorned Muldoon supposedly warned, “You’ll never finish first. I’ll hoodoo it until the end of time.” Despite three Stanley Cup victories in ’34, ’38 and ’61, the team didn’t finish atop the standings until 1967. Since then, it’s happened 13 times, so unlike their local baseball brethren, the Hawks have overcome.

Photo: istockphoto.com

The octopus
Look for octopuses to hit the ice with a splat during the Winter Classic—it’s a Detroit tradition to throw the cephalopod into the rink to bring the Red Wings good luck. The hurling of dead marine life started during the 1952 playoffs, when Detroit fish-market owners Pete and Jerry Cusimano threw an octopus onto the ice; the eight-tentacled creature was intended to symbolize the eight wins necessary to nab the Stanley Cup. The Wings went on to win that year, and the practice of throwing octopuses after the national anthem and when the Wings score has continued (in one 1995 game, fans threw 36 octopuses onto the ice, including a 30-pound beast). These days, fans smuggle the animals into arenas by placing the slightly cooked octopus (to lessen the stink and slime) into a plastic bag and taping the bag onto their stomachs to mimic a beer belly.

The weather
According to Craig, the ideal temperature for the skating surface is 22 degrees. Below that, the ice turns brittle, and as players speed forward, their blades can slip out from underneath them. This makes the game dangerous and slow, as skaters move more cautiously to try to stay on their feet. If the air remains around freezing, there’s little difference between Wrigley’s center field and a temperature-controlled arena. The record low for New Year’s Day in Chicago is negative 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The good news is that four of the last five years have delivered a relatively toasty mid-40s afternoon. But if it gets too warm, the rink can turn swampy.

The rivalry
How bad is the blood between these two clubs? Let’s turn to the stats. The Blackhawks’ worst loss of all time came by the sticks of Detroit, which creamed Chicago 12–0 in 1987. On the other hand, the Hawks’ record for most points in a period, 20, was set in ’72 against, yup, the Red Wings. Despite easily winning it all last season, Detroit was owned by Chicago, losing the season series 3–5. Another team record: 72 total penalties racked up between the two sides in ’88. Ouch. Which leads us to…

The fights
It’s common practice for NHL teams to keep a spot on the roster for an enforcer, a goon. These brawlers enter the game when play gets a little heated and spend much of their careers in the penalty box. If anyone fits the bill for Chicago, it’s right wing Adam Burish. Last season, the Madison, Wisconsin, native spent 214 minutes in the Plexiglas cage.

The Wings play without a goon. They’re so ridiculously talented, they don’t need one. However, when Detroit center Kris Draper celebrated his traditional day with the Stanley Cup over the summer, he let his baby daughter poop in it. That’s worth a punch.

The Blackhawks face the Red Wings at noon on January 1 at Wrigley Field for the NHL’s second annual Winter Classic. Watch the action on NBC.

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