What a mess!

Somehow, someway, the one thing NHL players were looking forward to the most has now become a mess of epic proportions. The blame doesn’t lie at The NHL’s feet. No, the blame lies with The IIHF. After all, how do you screw up the size of the ice sheet? And for The Olympics no less! 

To be fair, The IIHF doesn’t control Olympic arena construction, so they aren’t the only group to blame, but still. It’s almost understandable that the arena isn’t finished being built yet. Construction crews are notorious for running behind schedule, even with three to five years to get the job done. 

But getting the dimensions of the ice wrong is just preposterous. Plus, The IIHF, NHL and IOC had all agreed well in advance that the ice would be the same dimensions used in The NHL (200ftx85ft). But somewhere along the line, The IIHF went rogue and decided to go with ice that is shorter and a hair wider (196.85ftx85.3ft) than what The NHL plays on. And guess what? You can’t even blame the metric system for this one. 

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly addressed this at Monday’s Board of Governors meeting by saying, “It happened.” Daly further went on to tell The Athletic, “I think the IIHF was under the impression they had a different interpretation of what NHL ice meant than maybe we would have. Even at the site visits, I’m not sure it was anything that was perceptible to anybody, right? It’s not like people bring tape measures there. So for whatever reason, it came back the way it came back. I mean, it’s a structural issue.”

Before anyone gets on Daly’s case, he, Commissioner Gary Bettman, and The League are quite furious over this change. Supposedly, Team Canada knew about the difference late in the summer, but everyone else just found out a week ago. (Don’t get me started on this). 

While The IIHF insists the ice size won’t make a difference in terms of how the games are played and that it won’t compromise the safety of the players, not everyone agrees with them. Several players have gone on record saying that the lack of space will be very noticeable once the players get on the ice. Notably, though, none of the players polled felt the smaller ice sheet would be a safety concern. So at least there’s that. 

However, Daly did say the following regarding player safety: “Part of what distinguishes this type of tournament from just a regular game is you’re playing three games a day on the same sheet of ice for a prolonged period of time. That’s tough on the ice. The ice has to be a little more resilient than it might otherwise have to be.

“We need to make sure that the ice is of sufficient quality that it doesn’t put our players at risk playing on it, and that’s something that we’re going to have to monitor. We have offered, and they’re utilizing, our ice experts and technicians and outside providers. We’re basically moving everybody there to try to help get this done in a way that’s acceptable for NHL athletes.”

Basically, the size of the ice is no longer The League’s primary concern. They are now worried about the quality of the ice. And if the ice doesn’t pass the test, then The League and its players will put their foot down. 

“If the players feel that the ice is unsafe to play, then we’re not going to play. It’s as simple as that,” Daly said.

And with that, the door has now been opened for a stunning about-face that didn’t seem possible just six months ago. As of now, according to Daly, the arena is supposed to be finished by February 2nd. The Women’s tournament starts February 5th and the men February 11th. 

So little time and so much to do.