{"id":472098,"date":"2026-02-13T09:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T09:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/472098\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T09:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T09:26:08","slug":"get-used-to-it-hockey-fans-the-weird-rink-in-milan-may-not-be-going-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/472098\/","title":{"rendered":"Get used to it, hockey fans \u2013 the weird rink in Milan may not be going anywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, left, IIHF president Luc Tardif, centre, and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh. The IIHF says different dimension rinks will feature in future Games, while Bettman wants the Games played on NHL-size ice.Bruce Bennett\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

For hockey fans who thought the weird rink size at the Milan Cortina Olympics<\/a>, which is slightly smaller than NHL dimensions, was a one-off \u2013 a mistake that won\u2019t be repeated at future Olympics \u2013 don\u2019t count on it.<\/p>\n

The head of the International Ice Hockey Federation indicated Thursday that even though National Hockey League players have returned to the Olympics, the standard NHL rink may not be coming with them to forthcoming Winter Games.<\/p>\n

IIHF president Luc Tardif said he likes the rink in Milan, and shrugged off the fact that the federation uses measurements that are about three feet shorter and a few inches wider than an NHL rink.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to make a promise,\u201d Tardif said about future Olympics not using the off-kilter size, which also has slightly sharper curves in the corners. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to try now to keep the same size,\u201d Tardif said. \u201cFor us it\u2019s not a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada’s first Olympic hockey win was a chemistry test<\/a><\/p>\n

Just to recap: An NHL rink is 200 feet long by 85 feet wide. The rink in Milan is 60 metres long by 26 metres wide, or about 196.85 feet long by 85.3 feet wide.<\/p>\n

The reason? The International Ice Hockey Federation has a standard footprint, in metric measurements, for what it deems to be a North American-size rink, which is not exactly NHL size.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a close proximity to the imperial measurements used by the NHL, but not exact.<\/p>\n

And for Tardif, this is close enough. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s Drew Doughty defends Czechia’s David Pastrnak in Canada’s opening game of Olympic play. The players seem to have no issue with the slightly smaller rink size in Milan.GEOFF BURKE\/Reuters<\/p>\n

It means the mostly NHL rosters in Milan are working with three less feet subtracted from the neutral zone.<\/p>\n

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, seated next to Tardif at a joint press conference, endorsed the NHL size, saying the singular time it was used at the Winter Games \u2013 during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics \u2212 the games were better to watch than on the far wider rink that the Winter Games used to employ.<\/p>\n

The wider rink, known for decades in hockey circles as \u201cOlympic ice\u201d or \u201cThe Big Ice\u201d measures 60 metres long by 30 metres wide, or 196.85 feet by 98.4 feet. It is about 13 feet wider than an NHL rink and makes for a much different game.<\/p>\n

It was used consistently over the decades at the Winter Games, back when the Soviet Union dominated the tournament, and also in more recent times, including 1998 Nagano, 2006 Turin, 2014 Sochi, and 2018 Pyeongchang.<\/p>\n

The only question mark is the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics which, according to reports, used specs that were neither NHL nor Olympic-size. The IIHF\u2019s communications department has been unable to confirm what measurements were used that year.<\/p>\n

Eric Reguly: Every medal tastes sweeter in these bitter times for Canada. Thank you, Olympians<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometime after 2018, the IIHF decided to drop the wider ice surface for the Olympics and move to its version of a North American-style footprint, which is used in some arenas in Europe. For example, when four NHL teams went to Sweden in 2023 as part of the league\u2019s Global Series, the slightly smaller IIHF footprint was used.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying on an NHL ice gives you a better and more entertaining hockey game than playing on [the wider] international ice, with the level of players that we have,\u201d Bettman said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Bettman said the IIHF\u2019s smaller footprint in Milan, with its oddball dimensions, is a close proximity.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting aside three feet in the length of the rink, roughly, we\u2019re basically playing on NHL ice, particularly as it relates to the width,\u201d Bettman said.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean the NHL is happy about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur understanding, and what was agreed upon for these Games, was that the rink would be built to NHL dimensions,\u201d NHL spokesman John Dellapina said in an e-mail. \u201cWe\u2019re focused on playing this tournament. We\u2019ll deal with future Games in the future.\u201d <\/p>\n

So if the IIHF gets its way, this weird, not-quite-perfect, oddball compromise of a rink likely isn\u2019t going anywhere, judging by the way Tardif talks.<\/p>\n

It also sounds like the NHL may have something to say about it during future negotiations. However, the Milan situation shows it\u2019s unclear who is in charge. <\/p>\n

It should be noted though, the players in Milan don\u2019t seem to care. Several that have been asked about the rink have said the quest for a gold medal matters more to them than a few missing feet of ice. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an even playing field for everybody,\u201d Team Canada\u2019s Connor McDavid said. <\/p>\n

American Jack Eichel agreed: \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s a hockey rink.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Canada played its first game in Milan Thursday, a 5-0 win over Czechia, head coach Jon Cooper said he didn\u2019t really see an impact from having a smaller neutral zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t notice it at all,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n

Follow our live daily coverage<\/a> of the Winter Games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, left, IIHF president Luc Tardif, centre, and NHLPA executive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,2922,4963,187287,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-472098","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-noastack","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-olympicstaff","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472098","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=472098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}