Rexall Ice Surface.

[9GWG9]

Is it just me or did our ice play like we were in the deep south last night. I once took pride in the fact we were known to have the best ice in the NHL. Lately it has been total garbage. The puck bounces on most plays, even at the begining of the period and its odvious that its starting to require more energy than it should to skate on our ice. Agree?

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[chris11inter]

Is it just me or did our ice play like we were in the deep south last night. I once took pride in the fact we were known to have the best ice in the NHL. Lately it has been total garbage. The puck bounces on most plays, even at the begining of the period and its odvious that its starting to require more energy than it should to skate on our ice. Agree?

The ice at Rexall has been awful all year. I don't know if we changed the ice maker, or staff or what not. But just watch how many times the puck skips around the ice.

Pretty awful to be honest

 

[Draiskull]

Is it just me or did our ice play like we were in the deep south last night. I once took pride in the fact we were known to have the best ice in the NHL. Lately it has been total garbage. The puck bounces on most plays, even at the begining of the period and its odvious that its starting to require more energy than it should to skate on our ice. Agree?

With Oilers and the Oilkings in town one would assume that there should be ice on the Rexall surface all winter. They should really look to have the other events (BonJovi concert) at some other venue and leave the Rexall place just for ice activities in winter.

 

[MadMax82*]

Our Ice Maker guy now works for the NHL.

THe Ice has been getting worse progressively due to the fact in our aging equipment

 

[MadMax82*]

With Oilers and the Oilkings in town one would assume that there should be ice on the Rexall surface all winter. They should really look to have the other events (BonJovi concert) at some other venue and leave the Rexall place just for ice activities in winter.

That will never happen. Northlands would loose millions

 

[sync]

yes, the industries' best ice maker left, and i was told the ice making plant is getting old as well.

ice has sucked for a couple of years now.

 

[jsho]

With Oilers and the Oilkings in town one would assume that there should be ice on the Rexall surface all winter. They should really look to have the other events (BonJovi concert) at some other venue and leave the Rexall place just for ice activities in winter.

What other venue is there that is capable of doing this?

 

[420ilerBuzz*]

The ice plant has had issues for the last three seasons - it really started to get bad last year. From what I've been told - one of the pipes in the floor is no longer functioning the way it's supposed to. This is another major reason we need a new rink ASAP. Now with the extra demands (Oil Kings) being placed on the ol' ice maker - the ice won't be getting better any time soon.

 

[Walsher]

The EIG had talked about upgrading the Ice Plant several years ago as this one is ready to go. Until that is done, or a new building is finished, the ice will continue to deteriorate. Moving concerts/events elsewhere is not an option. The revenues from these events are ridiculous and Northlands would never do this. They, themselves, would replace the ice plant before considering this option. Consider the loss of revenues from parking, concessions, etc. from the loss of events at the building. Unfortunately, this situaiton is in limbo a bit. They do not want to invest in an ice plant if Katz is going to build a new building. Until some of the uncertainties become more certain they are stuck with what they have.

 

[cfrancis]

It's Reasoner and those heated skates that are ruining it for everyone!

 

[Oilerdiehard]

Is it just me or did our ice play like we were in the deep south last night.

Just last night?

It has been going downhill for a long time now. I think I read somewhere (on the boards so it was probably hearsay) that the ice plant is on it's last legs and not running even close to full capacity. I know there is talk of a new arena but they need to buy a new ice plant because that is years away and that ice is not good anymore.

 

[M00se]

The ice has been horrible this year. This could be a reason our home record isn't as good as our away record. We are team of quick transition with quick passes. The choppy ice is really making it difficult to play like that.

Spend the money on a new ice plant and we'll be good again, until then we should be embaressed!

 

[OntOilFan]

Katz will fix it. He will fix everything.

 

[sweetcrude]

Our Ice Maker guy now works for the NHL.

THe Ice has been getting worse progressively due to the fact in our aging equipment

The fact that the equipment is aging need not necessarily explain the problem. The facility in which the Oilers reside could itself not be removing enough heat from the building. Could in fact be an HVAC issue.

That said, the problem exists so either
1) upgrade the HVAC system, or
2) increase refrigerant flow under the ice (buy another compressor), or
3) both

Judging by the fact that our ice was great before and isn't now, I doubt that it's the equipment that's to blame. Frankly, if it is the refrigeration equipment at fault, then someone has been asleep at the wheel and something needs to happen. If it's an HVAC issue, that's a little more tricky as there may be a structural limitation to what can be placed onto the Rexall roof. Maybe the capacity can be increased.

Who actually owns the building and is responsible for it's maintenance? Northlands?

 

[oilmachine]

Katz will fix it. He will fix everything.

all hail king katz

 

[MadMax82*]

The fact that the equipment is aging need not necessarily explain the problem. The facility in which the Oilers reside could itself not be removing enough heat from the building. Could in fact be an HVAC issue.

That said, the problem exists so either
1) upgrade the HVAC system, or
2) increase refrigerant flow under the ice (buy another compressor), or
3) both

Judging by the fact that our ice was great before and isn't now, I doubt that it's the equipment that's to blame. Frankly, if it is the refrigeration equipment at fault, then someone has been asleep at the wheel and something needs to happen. If it's an HVAC issue, that's a little more tricky as there may be a structural limitation to what can be placed onto the Rexall roof. Maybe the capacity can be increased.

Who actually owns the building and is responsible for it's maintenance? Northlands?

Piping is old , plant is on last legs. HVAC system will not help.

 

[Sayuri]

Does anybody have even a good geuss as to what something like replacing the ice-plant would cost? Is it a worthwhile thing to do even if a new building is on the way?

 

[MadMax82*]

Does anybody have even a good geuss as to what something like replacing the ice-plant would cost? Is it a worthwhile thing to do even if a new building is on the way?

The local arena here in town replaced theres 10 years ago to the tune of 60k and that was just the plant itself not the piping or anything else.

Rexall would prolly cost 3 - 4 million and prolly 2 months to do it

 

[Shaynsaw]

This morning I was fortunate enough to be involved in a video conference with Trent Evans at Rexall Place and a Grade 6 class in Peace River. For those that do not know he is the man responsible for putting the Looney in the ice at the 2002 Olympics. The class had just finshed reading the book "A Looney for Luck" about him. Up until 2003 he was operations manager responsible for the ice at Rexall. Currently he is involved with event sales for Northlands.

Before we disconnected I chatted with him for a bit and asked him this very question. He said the ice is being used more now that it has ever been used in the past. He said for starters Rexall now hosts 2 teams. He also said that on average Rexcall now hosts around 45 non hockey events each year as compared to 15 when he was operations manager. He finished off by saying that the current ice team is VERY aware of the issue and is doing everything they can do about it.

 

[Reimer]

With Oilers and the Oilkings in town one would assume that there should be ice on the Rexall surface all winter. They should really look to have the other events (BonJovi concert) at some other venue and leave the Rexall place just for ice activities in winter.

I hope you are joking or else you just don't know anything about business. Northlands is in the midst of loosing their hugest source of income via the Oilers and Oil Kings by means of a new arena being built. Of course they are going to rent that building out to every last person who wants to use the building because once there is a new arena in town nobody is going to use that building for anything, including concerts. Just because some hockey fans aren't happy with the ice, I really doubt that the Northlands staff will refrain from renting their building to other acts that come to town.
On top of that if we do not rent rexall place to big name musicians, that leaves them with what, the Shaw conference centre to paly shows? It would not even be worth their time to look this city up ont he map for a stop.
With that said the ice conditions will remain the same because until a new building is built. Because Northlands is no going to invest money into a project that they will be loosing in the near future.

 

[Sayuri]

The local arena here in town replaced theres 10 years ago to the tune of 60k and that was just the plant itself not the piping or anything else.

Rexall would prolly cost 3 - 4 million and prolly 2 months to do it

Thanks a lot for the info. That would be a hefty chunk of change that's for sure, I wonder if Northlands would have any kind of responsibility to help out with the cost?

 

[420ilerBuzz*]

Hopefully they can get something figured out for now...

 

[Dolemite]

I was going to post this in a new thread but Patrick Laforge was on Oilers live (podcasted below) not too long ago and talked about the ice at Rexall and what they're doing to fix it:

http://downloads.oilers.nhl.com/podcasts/20071213-oilerslive_laforge2.mp3

 

[Joe The Lion]

New ice or a new dressing room? Hmm.

 

[OilerNut*]

New ice or a new dressing room? Hmm.

Apparently a fancy dressing room makes a player want to play here.

Honestly I think they should just replace the ice plant after this season, it isn't like the building will be torn down if the Oilers leave.