More action (daily newspaper Junge Welt)

The stars from the North American professional league NHL will feel at home at the Winter Games in Beijing in February 2022. After all, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) will play for medals on a significantly reduced ice rink for the first time at the Olympics, as is standard in everyday NHL life. The playing area will not be 30 meters wide, as was previously the case, but only 26 meters. The 1.20 meter high boards are also to be lowered a little, in favor of a little more Plexiglas, in order to make what is happening on the ice even more “transparent” for spectators and cameras.

»In future, all major world ice hockey tournaments will only be held under these conditions, including the world championships, of course. The beginning will be made in Beijing «, knows the (still) President of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB), Franz Reindl, and makes it clear which path world ice hockey is taking. This does not lead to a reduction in the number of players in order to create space for the »beautiful game« with four against four plus keeper, for example based on the model of earlier »Sbornaja« teams, or even to switch to a three against three format, as it is now in Overtime is customary and extremely popular with the public and was successfully tested as a tournament format at the 2020 Winter Youth Games in Lausanne, Switzerland. Instead, it should be narrowed down so that the fastest team sport in the world can get even more action.

More checks and body contacts are the logical consequence, as is less time for the passing game, for technical tricks and other »artistic subtleties«. And there are guaranteed to be more shots on goal on the »mini ice«, because with an area shortened by two meters on each side and a correspondingly changed radius in the »corners« behind the goals, additional offensive effects are provided in the attacking third. “From the outside, the way to the gate is much shorter, which of course makes itself felt,” observed Krischan Läubin. The press man from the Schwenninger Wild Wings in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) can examine the changed conditions in the hunt for goals every day from close range.

The Schwenninger are the first club in Germany to adapt its ice rink to the new IIHF standard when the arena was modernized for around 5,300 spectators last year. In addition, there has been a training hall with an ice rink in the same “small format” since 2019, so that the team could familiarize itself with the new dimensions and adapt to them long enough. »Actually, the smaller playing area is hardly discussed any more. The visiting teams also regard these special conditions as a completely normal occurrence for us and for many players who come from North America or have already played there, it is not a change anyway, ”reports Krischan Läubin. Perhaps that is why the narrower ice surface did not give the Wild Wings a home advantage. They are currently at the bottom of the DEL table.

“The technically skilled players, the better players, have an advantage when the spaces get tighter,” says the former international striker Reindl, while the hall operator in Schwenningen points out a noticeable ecological effect. With 240 square meters less ice surface, adequately less energy is required for ice preparation. How much less in detail and how big the savings in euros and cents is “a trade secret”.

“The clubs can go this way, but they don’t have to do it,” the DEL headquarters commented on the innovation. Next, EHC Red Bull Munich will reduce the ice surface as soon as the puck flies in the new, around 150 million euros expensive multifunctional hall in the Olympic Park in the 2022/2023 season. Up to 11,500 spectators will then feel as if they were overseas in the Munich Ice Dome and hopefully experience what is to be offered in Beijing this coming February and at the 85th Ice Hockey World Championships in Finland: big ice hockey in a smaller NHL format.