Imagine a government employee, call him Claude Provost. Imagine that Claude, a big fan of hockey pools and all things NHL, one day finds a book in a bookstore. Its title: The playing surface . This would be a maintenance manual for ice rinks and groomers - better known as zambonis . Let us then imagine that Claude hears on the sports newscast a sentence which comes verbatim from the book: “The unknown is the playing surface.” The same sentence would reappear in an article in The Canadian Press.. Let's imagine that Claude obsesses over this book and that he and his friends expose themselves to threats by dint of investigating. Imagine that The Playing Surface reveals the existence of a potential scandal of biblical proportions: a conspiracy takes place at the very heart of the sacrosanct National Hockey League.