Making Ice at Verizon Center

(Photos by Caps Outsider)

A crew at Verizon Center started putting down the ice this week in preparation for the NHL season. We caught some of the first steps, but it’s a multi-day process and set to be finished on Friday. Here, they put down the lines, painted them, and put down the ads and logos.

Here’s Verizon Center before the ice goes down. It’s just white concrete that only LOOKS like ice.

Yes, yarn is required for making a hockey rink.

Proton packs are required for making an ice rink.

The blue line was one of the first things to be painted.

They used to paint the logos on the floor. Now they just put down banners.

MMMMM. Hopot Mexicana.

A worker stencils one of the face-off circles.

Center ice!

Here’s the floor plan. Chipotle, Verizon, Bud Light and Capital One logos are shown with exact placement.

This is a machine that has something to do with making ice.

Here is the view from the press box later on:

Press box view of #Caps ice building @verizoncenterpr pic.twitter.com/eulJ6owYSg

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) September 11, 2014

For those of you who are interested, concrete bases aren’t the only bases used in ice rinks. There are also sand-based rinks. Here’s what they look like under the ice: