NHLers 'not going' to Olympics if ice isn’t ready and safe, reiterates deputy commissioner

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is “disappointed” that the main arena slated to host ice hockey at February’s Olympics isn’t yet completed with less than two months to go before the Games are scheduled to be played.

The ice isn’t expected to go into the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan, Italy, until the end of this month or early January, according to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. That leaves little time to make any adjustments if there are issues with the ice.

The arena is being built from the ground up with temporary ice. It was developed by a private company, and construction started late.

NHL players are set to return to the Olympic Games after more than a decade away, but the arena's readiness affects the women's hockey tournament, too.

“There’s a lot we have to do to enable our players to play, including planning the shutdown of the season for two weeks,” Bettman told reporters in Winnipeg on Wednesday. “The fact that the building at this point still isn’t completed is, as I said — and I won’t use any other adjectives — is disappointing.”

NHL ice technicians and experts are in Italy now to offer expertise. They were on hand Wednesday at a test event at the Rho Ice Hockey Arena, the secondary arena that will be used for hockey in Milan.

The ice inside Rho has been built in a repurposed space, and according to reports Daly received on Wednesday, the ice was good.

But officials won’t know about the ice quality in Santagiulia until the ice is created and a test event is held from Jan. 9-11. That event will simulate the Olympic tournament, with three games per day and spectators in the stands, all designed to see how the ice holds up under those conditions and temperatures. 

“In all of the prior Olympics, whether they built permanent or temporary facilities, it’s never been this late for completion and the building of ice,” Bettman said. “That’s why we are cautious.”

Earlier this week, Daly told The Associated Press that NHL players won’t compete on the ice if it isn’t safe.

Daly reiterated that on Wednesday.

“It’s probably a self-fulfilling prophecy that if the ice isn’t ready and it’s not safe, then we’re not going,” Daly said. “I mean, I think that’s pretty self-evident.”

A couple hours earlier, across the ocean in Lausanne, Switzerland, International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials downplayed any concerns about the ice where men’s and women’s hockey will be played.

At a press conference to wrap up two days of IOC executive board meetings, IOC president Kirsty Coventry said the arena wasn’t discussed at those meetings.