It was expected that – as in Beijing 2022 – it would not be played on an “airport” with a width of 30 meters. But when it became clear that the hockey tournament at the February Olympics in Milan would not even take place on ice with overseas dimensions, but even smaller, a long-discussed topic surfaced in the NHL.
“After all, the fields in the NHL are too small,” bluntly stated Mike Sullivan, the highly regarded coach of the New York Rangers, who has two Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh and will lead the United States at the Olympics.
As a reminder – in Milan it will be played on ice measuring 60 x 26 meters, in the NHL it is roughly 61 x 26 meters (200 x 85 feet in imperial units).
Even the larger of these dimensions is not enough for Sullivan. “Despite the development of ice hockey and the development of the hockey players themselves, we still play on the same big ice as the players in the 1950s,” the 57-year-old coach marveled. “However, today’s hockey players are bigger, stronger and faster than ever before. As a result, the playing field is getting smaller every year, even though it remains physically the same.”
Many in Europe may be taken aback by such words, because on the old continent the overseas playground is now taken as an invention from which an example should be taken.
Arguments are made that a cut rink brings a higher pace, more chances or hard clashes and an overall more attractive game.
That’s why the IIHF ice hockey federation committed itself to a 26-meter “noodle” already in the case of the Beijing 2022 Olympics, where NHL stars did not compete. The tradition of a wide rink under five rings receded into the background.
Thirty-meter “airports” have not been banned by the federation, after all, the past adult world championships were held on them in Sweden and Denmark, but the trend is clear.
A number of European clubs also follow it. In the Czech Extraliga, Karlovy Vary, Litvínov and Kladno jumped onto the typically North American ice width.
At the same time, in the NHL itself, a narrow field is not a sacred cow. Although Sullivan’s statements may seem surprising, they are nothing new.
Players and managers alike would expand
When the Canadian magazine The Hockey News asked dozens of NHL players in the 2000s how to improve hockey in the overseas league, the most common suggestion was to expand the ice surface. It was the only one heard by more than 20 percent of respondents.
Part of the reason may have been that not long before, in February 2002, the Olympic tournament in Salt Lake City, USA, took place on a wider rink. With handsome hockey and a dream final USA – Canada caused a huge response in North America.
Although the players did not necessarily call for a 30-meter “airport” in the mentioned poll, the compromise between it and the overseas “noodle” found significant support.
Later, the famous official Brian Burke also opened up the topic, who revealed, among other things, that in an unofficial vote in the 1990s, 24 of the then 30 general managers of the NHL voted in favor of expanding the field.
He himself is a big supporter of this idea. “I’ve felt that way for a long time,” he told Canadian station TSN in 2016. “When I was general manager of Vancouver (between 1999 and 2004 – editor’s note)I thought that the ice was too small for our team full of big and skilled players. I felt that it was limiting our ability to excel. That started it for me.’
Specifically, Burke would need five extra feet, a total of 27.4 meters wide rink. “I think it would have a big impact on the quality of hockey,” he added.
The main reason why, despite the long-term desire for change, everything remains the same, unsurprisingly, lies in money.
NHL stadiums are already built for a typical “noodle”. It was founded by Montreal’s Victoria Skating Rink with dimensions of 62.2 x 24.4 meters, where the first indoor hockey game took place in 1875.
Rebuilding the current tabernacles would be expensive, and not only because of the reconstruction itself. After the necessary removal of the seats right next to the ice, the total capacity of the – often sold out – halls would be reduced.
So overseas will probably not go in the opposite direction from Europe in the foreseeable future. But not because the 26-meter width of the ice is a clear ideal.
