Crisis adverted

I just finished speaking to an anonymous source over at the Ice Haus and have an interesting story for all of you.

As I posted over the weekend the boys at the Dispatch Ice Haus started laying the ice in preparation for camp which is slated to begin September 12th.

Apparently late Saturday night one of the ice maintenance guys went to check on how it was coming along and walked into a disaster area.

Let me first say I'm no ice making expert (if you want that go here) but from what I understand I guess the compressor that keeps the ice cool through a series of pipes under the ice had a serious breakdown. The thing sprung a leak and was shooting oil everywhere. The ice and logos were melted mush.

Needless to say at this point the red beacon lights behind nets weren't flashing because somebody scored a goal.

As Clark W Griswold would say this was a full-blown, four-alarm hockey emergency here!

From what I'm told there are two compressors at Nationwide -- one for the practice ice and one for the main ice.

Make sense.

Unfortunately they aren't designed to back one another up so if one breaks it better be fixable and it most certainly better not be during the season.

Initially the diagnosis was that it would take 4 weeks to fix this thing. That would have had a major impact on camp. Not ideal but not the end of the world either as things could be moved to one of the other Chillers. The question then became what about the compressor for the main ice.. is that one okay? That would certainly have been another story entirely.

The Jackets immediately called in some reinforcements from north of the boarder. After 3 days which included disasembling the compressor the problem was located and fixed. The compressor on the main checked out okay but is also getting some maitenance to ensure it doesn't fail.

I'm happy to report that this crisis appears to have been adverted and that camp should proceed as scheduled.

The guys may have to skate at another one of the Chillers for the time being (or join RJ at OSU's practice rink) but Hitch's fantasy camp appears to still be a go!

Whew...

-LTL