Who has spent the most time on the ice of Canadian Tire Centre since it was opened 30 years ago?
On the surface, it seems like an open-and-shut query for the hockey nerds interested. Though the NHL only began tracking time-on-ice data in 1997-98, two years after the building was opened, one of Chris Phillips or Daniel Alfredsson has to be the answer, right?
Wrong. The real answer, dwarfing both Phillips and Alfredsson, is Zamboni driver Glen McDonald, followed closely by his colleagues Silvano Bergnach, Ralph Yeretch, and Sean Cavanagh. McDonald has served as part of the game-night crew — who lead the ice crew — since March 1996, while his three colleagues debuted in 2000.
On this game night, like the thousands before them, their nightly Tim Hortons order sits waiting for the drivers and ice crew to spill in about two-and-a-half hours before puck drop, coffees and donuts quickly losing their warmth in the cold tunnel.
On-air personalities — TSN’s Jamie MacLennan and Claire Hanna on this particular evening — and off-ice officials weave their ways through the area, which just barely offers enough room to turn the two machines around every time they do a cut of the ice. Boots sit by the chairs where the team changes into their skates.
Retired NHL linesman Derek Nansen — who refereed Sean while coming up in the Kanata minor hockey system — enters with his grandson, ears burning, just minutes after the four recollect his final NHL game, which occurred last April at Canadian Tire Centre.
His grandson happily hops on a Zamboni, these surprisingly only the third set of choppers the building has seen since it opened.
Meanwhile, the four all declare the 2007 Stanley Cup Final — McDonald and Bergnach drove Game 3, which the Senators won at home — the highlight of their careers. The area around the Zamboni tunnel (between Gate 2 and Gate 3) turned into a miniature city as broadcast trucks filled in the space in the loading dock behind them.
In 2009, when Jordan Eberle scored the tying goal in the Gold Medal Game at the World Junior Championships, they were there watching, just feet away from the action.
In the spring of 2015, the four cleaned dozens of hamburgers off the ice during the Hamburglar run, the most on the night of March 19th, when rookie Curtis Lazar decided to celebrate a 6-4 win over Minnesota with a bite of a McDouble.
In December 2017, the group made a rare departure from Kanata, travelling to Parliament Hill to prepare and maintain the ice for the NHL 100 Classic’s alumni game. “Snowed a lot that night, did a lot of shovelling,” said Cavanagh. “But it was a great atmosphere, great turnout, and who knows if it will ever happen again, so very special,” added McDonald.
Last season, McDonald welcomed his son Tyler to the crew. The younger McDonald is a play-by-play commentator whose resumes include stints on the air in U SPORTS and the OHL. By day though, he operates an arena, like the current four drivers do or have done, before retiring or being promoted to supervisor positions.
The two McDonalds now commute to games together from Barrhaven, listening to TSN 1200, a special part of their game nights.
And a much nicer commute than some of the drivers have had to do while on the job. Backup Zambonis would sometimes be needed and borrowed from Bell Sensplex, the nearby Senators practice facility.
“I prefer snow than rain,” said Cavanagh. “Rain was not fun with the umbrella. We were having issues with the old machines, one caught on fire.”
“I had a cab slow down, roll the back window down, there’s a guy in the back laughing at me,” Bergnach says of his worst commute.
