NHL players are set to return to the Olympics this winter for the first time in over a decade, but the path back to the Games hasn’t been smooth. The Milan arena remains under construction with less than 90 days to go, and Team Canada assistant coach Pete DeBoer recently revealed that the ice won’t match NHL dimensions.
During an appearance on Sportsnet’s “Real Kyper and Bourne,” DeBoer said he expects the playing surface to be several feet smaller than an NHL rink, though he was baffled as to why.
“The ice surface, it looks like it’s going to be smaller than NHL rink standards [by] it looks like three or four feet,” he said. “I don’t understand how that happened.”
Per The Athletic’s Chris Johnston and Michael Russo, a 196.85 feet by 85.3 feet rink has been approved for the Games, compared to the 200-foot by 85-foot ice sheet used in the NHL.
Players have previously competed on international-sized rinks at the Olympics, but the agreement between the NHL, NHLPA, and International Olympic Committee specified an NHL-sized rink for the 2026 Games. The NHL last sent players to the Olympics for the 2014 Sochi Games.
Construction delays have already plagued the new arena, which will not be done in time for a previously-planned test event later this month. While most facilities are tested well in advance of Olympic use, the new arena will have very little wiggle room before the puck drops, and there’s no backup venue available if it’s not done in time.
“It’s going to be very close to the start of the games, the timeline is very tight. But we knew that,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier told the Associated Press.
The women’s Olympic ice hockey tournament is set to begin on February 5, with the men’s tournament running from February 11-22.
