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Boston Globe

Hockey ice isn't the same as figure skating ice. Here's how the bull gang got TD Garden ready for the World Championships.

Advertisement Ergo, Rebelo directed the Garden's faithful bull gang to boost the ice's thickness to approximately 2½ inches, an inch or more above the hockey standard, and also had them dial up its surface temperature by 5 degrees to approximately 22 degrees Fahrenheit. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Those toe picks are just like taking a fork into the ice, so you need some depth,' acknowledged Rebelo. 'Otherwise, you'll just be hitting cement.' Joao Rebelo, director of operations at TD Garden, directed the bull gang to boost the ice's thickness to approximately 2.5 inches, an inch or more above the hockey standard, and also had them dial up its surface temperature by 5 degrees to approximately 22 degrees Fahrenheit. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff All the lines and faceoff circles have been masked over and the surface's color, usually an eye-popping white, has been painted a stainless steel gray, making it so that TV cameras, particularly those positioned only some 10 feet above ice level, won't have to contend with glare. Hockey's brilliant white ice makes it easier for fans and TV cameras to follow the tiny black puck. The women and men skating this week, their oft-colorful outfits sometimes dusted with shimmering sequins, are easy for the naked eye to spot. Related : The first order of business following Hockey East action Friday night, noted Rebelo, had the bull gang applying white paint (manufactured by Jet Ice in Bradford, Ontario) directly to the ice surface, masking all lines and logos. 'So nothing bleeds through,' noted Rebelo. Next came the foundational gray paint, in a shade commonly found on stainless steel kitchen appliances and many laptop computers. Once the base color dried, the event's large center ice logo was put into place, flanked by a pair of ISU logos, and then the entire surface was flooded with the added inch of water. Advertisement Et voila, cue the music and ready the pluggers. Pluggers? 'Yeah,' said Rebelo, 'that's a little different than hockey.' Pluggers, bull gang members wearing their usual hockey skates and toting buckets of slushy ice (think: snow cones), are essential members of the show's maintenance crew. The thicker ice, warmed by 5 degrees to facilitate landings, does not eliminate the risk of chips and divots. Just before the resurfacers wheel out and make 'new' ice, pluggers scatter across the surface in search of chips, divots, and ruts. If a repair is needed, they reach into their buckets for some of that slushy ice, fill the spot, and then use a puck to tamp it down and smooth it out. Handy tool, that 6-ounce chunk of vulcanized rubber. Related : Asked if his pluggers would consider wearing figure skates for such a high-class event, Rebelo offered an exaggerated, 'Nooooooooo.' He knows his workforce. In days of yore, contended Milt Schmidt, the late legendary Bruin, the rumble of trains into North Station played havoc with the ice surface of the Garden, built in 1928. Ice making and resurfacing of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s were not the fine scientific arts that they are in the 21st century. It was not uncommon, according to Schmidt, for the trains to force the ice to quake and break apart, exposing the old building's cement floor. No pluggers in those days. The games continued and, per Schmidt, the skaters in their steel hockey blades would tear right across the cement, friction causing sparks to fly. Advertisement 'I talked to Milt, but I never talked to him about the ice,' said Rebelo, who chuckled over the retelling of Schmidt's story. 'I guess you could equate that to our other tenant, the Celtics. You always heard the story about the dead spots in the [parquet] floor. Now, I've yet to find one of those, but OK, yeah, sure, I'll believe that.' Hmm. How might even a tiny patch of exposed cement liven up the World Figure Skating Championships? 'Oh, now that would be amazing,' mused Rebelo, playing right along with the Globe reporter's suggestion made in jest. 'They don't have pyro, could be interesting to see that.' Visitors to the Garden this week who are accustomed to being there for hockey games should be able to tell the building is slightly warmer, said Rebelo, in part because the ice temperature is some 30 percent higher. The overall building temperature will be easier to maintain this week because figure skaters, unlike hockey players, don't arrive in big team buses that enter the building via a long ramp that deposits them directly to ice level. Without the need to open the humongous door on the south side of the building, allowing the buses to enter, said Rebelo, it's easier to keep the building at a constant temperature. Such a 'sealed' environment, added Rebelo, makes it easier on the building's state-of-the-art ice plant. 'You've got to remember,' said Rebelo, 'an ice rink is nothing but a refrigerator without a door.' The stage has been set. The world's best figure skaters are ready to strut their stuff with daring athleticism, some punishing landings, and style and elegance. Advertisement Rebelo, who knew it was a lost cause to think his pluggers might wear figure skates for such a formal occasion, said he asked his crew if they'd wear tuxedos when wheeling out on their ice resurfacers. 'Nope,' he said. 'Wouldn't go for it.' Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at