COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that if the league’s players feel the quality of the ice at the Olympics in Milan is unsafe, “then we’re not going to play.”
Daly told league owners Monday that he didn’t believe construction issues with the Olympic ice hockey rink were “insurmountable.”
The main hockey arena in Milan is scheduled to be finished Feb. 2. The women’s hockey tournament begins three days later, and the men’s tournament, with NHL players set to participate in the Olympics for the first time in over a decade, begins Feb. 11, leaving very little wiggle room.
The Olympic arenas will feature three games a day for nearly three weeks, which will challenge the resiliency of the ice. Daly categorized the updates the NHL and NHLPA received last week as positive, but said the league was upping its efforts to help see through the arena.
“We have offered and they’re utilizing our ice experts and technicians and outside providers,” Daly said. “We’re basically moving everybody there to try to help get this done in a way that’s acceptable for NHL athletes. And I’m cautiously optimistic it will be fruitful.”
The NHL will have ongoing access to the ice. That will include being on site for a test event scheduled for the main rink from Jan. 9-11.
But the NHL and NHLPA are willing to look past that for now — though they will insist the rink for the 2030 Olympics in France is built to NHL standards.
“The players association has canvassed the players and apparently they did not believe it to be a big issue, health and safety issue or a competitive issue,” Daly said.
Organizers have insisted there is no Plan B for the Olympic hockey tournament to be held elsewhere if the rink is not ready. Daly said the NHL also doesn’t have a contingency plan yet if it decides the ice is not suitable.
The NHL will go dark for a two-week period during the Games. Asked if it was possible to reconfigure the schedule if necessary, Daly said he wasn’t sure yet.
“Well, I can’t tell you exactly what we do,” he said. “What I’d say is, I think in emergency-type situations like that in the past, I think we’ve responded appropriately, came up with good solutions and I have no doubt that we’ll be able to come up with good solutions if we’re faced with that.”
“It’s as simple as that,” Daly told reporters after the NHL board of governors meetings on Monday.