{"id":338733,"date":"2025-12-11T09:42:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T09:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/338733\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T09:42:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T09:42:15","slug":"nhl-players-not-going-to-winter-olympics-if-ice-isnt-safe-deputy-commissioner-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/338733\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL players \u2018not going\u2019 to Winter Olympics if ice isn\u2019t safe: deputy commissioner – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Winter Olympics<\/a> are less than two months away and the NHL<\/a> says if the hockey rinks aren\u2019t ready in time or are unsafe, the league\u2019s players are \u201cnot going\u201d to the Games.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a match was played on the secondary Rho Ice Hockey<\/a> Arena, one of two planned locations for hockey in February\u2019s Milano Cortina Games.<\/p>\n

But the question remains if the main Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena will be ready in time, despite officials saying the 16,000-seat facility will be good to play on.<\/p>\n

The concerns surrounding the rink are not just about if the structure will be ready, but also if the ice will even be playable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t made ice yet,\u201d NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said during a news conference on Wednesday in Winnipeg. \u201cSo we don\u2019t know how good the ice is yet on the number one rink.\u201d<\/p>\n

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February\u2019s Olympics will be the first since 2014 featuring participation by NHL players.<\/p>\n

The NHL says it has sent its own ice specialists to help with preparations, but the league says until the surface is tested with skaters and the warmth from many fans in the arena, it may not be clear if the quality will be good enough.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf the ice isn\u2019t ready and it\u2019s not safe, then we\u2019re not going,\u201d said NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. \u201cI mean, I think that\u2019s self-evident.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The size of the rinks are also an issue, with the NHL being caught off guard earlier this year when it became clear the dimensions of both will be slightly wider and three feet shorter than what the league and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)agreed upon.<\/p>\n

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Daly told the Associated Press that the league and NHL Players\u2019 Association have reminded the IIHF that they expect the ice surface to be standard NHL size at the 2030 Winter Games in France.<\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s match, Japan captain Daigo Hotta said the ice at the Rho rink firmed up by game time though had said it was a \u201clittle soft\u201d during a pre-game skate. The dimensions were immediately noticeable, Hotta said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI play back in the States. The rinks are pretty small, but I think this one is one of the smallest rinks I\u2019ve ever played in,\u201d Hotta said. \u201cThe neutral zone\u2019s smaller. The space between the dots and the boards. I think everything\u2019s a little smaller than normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The match was part of the Group B Under-20 world championship tournament being held this week.<\/p>\n

Daly acknowledged the groups \u201cdid have a misunderstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The head of games operations for Milano Cortina recently dismissed questions about the rink size, noting the ice surfaces are consistent with IIHF rules. The official also said the ice has the same dimensions as the rinks used in Beijing in 2022, and in Stockholm, Sweden, where the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators played twice last month as part of the NHL\u2019s Global Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that the dimensions of the rink are different, but if you come to play in Europe, all the rinks have this type of size,\u201d Andrea Francisi said Tuesday. \u201cSo somehow you have to adapt to this kind of dimension.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The NHL says it is trying to put the problem in the past, saying it won\u2019t make too much of a difference in play, but the big worry remains that no Olympic hockey venue has been this far from completion so close to puckdrop.<\/p>\n

The first hockey game of the Olympics is Feb. 5, when the women\u2019s tournament will begin.<\/p>\n

\u2014with files from Global News\u2019 Mike Armstrong and The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Winter Olympics are less than two months away and the NHL says if the hockey rinks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,43,5239,148526,44,448,82,41,39,42,40,2845,74436,3275],"class_list":{"0":"post-338733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-milan-cortina","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories","19":"tag-u-s-news","20":"tag-winter-olympics","21":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}