{"id":405562,"date":"2026-01-13T00:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T00:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405562\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T00:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T00:26:07","slug":"nhl-nhlpa-pleased-with-progress-of-olympic-hockey-rink-construction-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405562\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL, NHLPA \u2018pleased\u2019 with progress of Olympic hockey rink construction in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">The National Hockey League and its Players\u2019 Association <a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2010848277780951427\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" hreflang=\"en\">released a joint statement<\/a> on Monday expressing satisfaction with the three-day test event held this past weekend at the Olympic ice hockey venue in Milan, Italy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">As part of the mile-a-minute efforts to get the rink finished in time, the Milano-Cortina organizing committee held the first test event on the brand-new ice surface over the weekend \u2014 and, apart from a small hole that formed during the initial session on Friday, it largely went off without a hitch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">Despite the ice sheet being slightly smaller than the NHL\u2019s standard dimensions \u2014 196.85\u2032 by 85.3\u2032, as opposed to the typical 200\u2032 by 85\u2032 \u2014 the league and the PA struck a decidedly contented tone in their statement on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cWe were pleased that this weekend\u2019s event was a good trial run and provided important insight into the current status of the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena,\u201d began the NHL and NHLPA\u2019s joint statement. \u201cWhile challenges are inherent with new ice and a still-under-construction venue, we expect that the work necessary to address all remaining issues will continue around the clock.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cThe NHL and NHLPA will continue to monitor the situation, standing ready to consult and advise on the work being done to ensure that the local organizing committee, the IOC, and the IIHF deliver a tournament and playing conditions befitting the world\u2019s best players.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">The Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena is expected to accommodate 16,000 spectators for men\u2019s and women\u2019s ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics, but the NHL <a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" hreflang=\"en\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyfaceoff.com\/news\/report-nhl-concerned-milan-2026-winter-olympics-ice-hockey-arena-construction-delayed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has expressed concern<\/a> over the tight construction timeline for the facility, which is still not fully operational with less than a month remaining until the Games begin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">Delegations from the NHL and NHLPA were in attendance for the test event, which was overseen by ice master Don Moffatt and involved players from local teams in Italy. Moffatt <a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/reporterchris\/status\/2010024632007680304?s=46&amp;t=HnlZXn-hftTl9f8rW_6qVA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" hreflang=\"en\">released a statement<\/a> on Saturday expressing his satisfaction with the ice quality, noting that small holes are \u201cin line with the usual process\u201d in a trial run for a new playing surface.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">The 2026 Olympic men\u2019s ice hockey tournament is slated to begin on Feb. 11, six days after the start of the women\u2019s tournament on Feb. 5. The men\u2019s tournament will be the first with NHL player participation since the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Hockey League and its Players\u2019 Association released a joint statement on Monday expressing satisfaction with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-405562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405562","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=405562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}