MILAN — The president of the International Ice Hockey Federation says he’s feeling more confident about the status of the upcoming Milan Cortina Olympic tournament after seeing a test event played at Santagiulia Arena over the weekend.
Luc Tardif was particularly pleased with how the ice surface held up under the duress of a three-game day, which will be a common occurrence with 32 men’s and women’s games scheduled here from Feb. 5 to 22.
“I’m going back happy,” Tardif told The Athletic on Sunday.
“There is no reason that the NHL will not come,” he added later.
While there is still a considerable amount of construction to be done on the second level of the main hockey venue and behind the scenes at an adjacent practice rink, Tardif indicated that they can make due with shortfalls in some areas, if necessary.
But getting the ice right was essential to ensuring the first Olympic tournament in 12 years to feature NHL players went ahead as planned.
“For me, the setup for the sport itself … I’m not worried,” Tardif said. “The hospitality suite, the area for the journalists (is not finished), but my job is ice hockey.”
The NHL and NHL Players’ Association both had staff on site to observe how things ran throughout the test event, but neither group has offered formal comment yet. However, the overwhelming feeling on the ground is that the Games will go ahead as planned.
Still, organizers left virtually no room for error. The NHL would have preferred to see a test event staged at this venue a year ago — just as it was at the main rink in Sochi, Russia, ahead of the 2014 Games — but the building wasn’t ready until this week. Organizers only started the ice installation process on Dec. 20, which delayed a previously scheduled test event by one month.
Tardif acknowledged feeling some pangs of concern as construction delays mounted. He visited this site in December while attending a test event held at the secondary Rho Arena and said he received daily progress updates over the past two months. Three critical days of construction were put on hold at Santagiulia in order to stage seven games featuring Italian men’s teams over the weekend, but it was a necessary step for the organization that oversees the Olympic tournament.
“For us, that was important, this test event,” Tardif said. “We were supposed to have it in December, and after a while, they said, ‘Yes, but with the delay that’s not going to be possible.’ No, no, no. We have to do it. The most important thing is the field of play.
“So that was complicated for them. They had to stop their work, and they are in a hurry.”
Organizers have entrusted Canadian Dan Moffatt with getting the ice right in both Olympic venues. He works for the Colorado Avalanche and was brought in as the “ice master” to lead the crew at his fifth Olympics. He could be seen closely inspecting trouble areas at one end of the sheet during every break in play over the weekend.
That was the same end where a hole appeared in front of the net during the first period of Friday’s opening game. In a statement attributed to Moffatt that the local organizing committee distributed Saturday night, that hole was described as a normal occurrence for ice being skated on for the first time.
Tardif was encouraged by what he saw over the course of Saturday’s three games. He felt the surface held up well under a level of use you’d typically only find at a World Hockey Championship.
“Yesterday, the third game, at the end, the puck was still sliding, so that’s a good test,” Tardif said.
There are lessons to be taken from the test event. For example, the surface took on a gray hue that Tardif believes will be corrected before the Olympics get underway.
“There is a little bit too much snow, but that’s the level of the temperature (in the building),” he said. “So, that’s just an adjustment. The color of the ice (is off), but they will put the logo and another batch of white (paint).
“So, it’s going to be ready.”
Based on where things stand with less than four weeks left before the start of the Games, it will almost certainly not be perfect. They’ve abandoned completing the concession areas on the main concourse, opting instead to park food trucks outside of the main entrance. The hospitality suites were covered by black bags all weekend and guarded by security. And a tour conducted on Friday night for IIHF and federation personnel didn’t include any stops on the second floor because the status of construction wouldn’t allow it.
Tardif is disappointed that the arena capacity only got to 11,800 — although he mentioned that there were some recent conversations about it falling as low as 10,000 and was relieved that didn’t happen. It’s not entirely clear why capacity fell so far below the 14,000 organizers had been targeting — a number that was cited as recently as this week in an official document distributed to the press.
“I would have liked for the competition we’re going to do to have more seats to sell and more fans, but it’s like it is,” Tardif said. “But it will be a nice setup for an atmosphere. The most important thing is the ice will be ready for this kind of competition.”
That would seem to bode well for the return of NHL players to the Olympics. The intention is for this to be the start of a new era where the league sends its players to the 2030 French Alps Games and 2034 Utah Games, as well.
Tardif said the IIHF has relented on objections it had about participating in an NHL-led World Cup tournament in 2028, noting that it’s “not exactly the win-win agreement we wanted,” and hopes to return to the table immediately after the Milan Games are finished to hammer out the next Olympic agreement with the NHL and NHLPA.
“That’s already started,” Tardif said. “We said, ‘Focus on (these) Olympics’ because you don’t know if it turns bad. You don’t know what can happen. Now I’m a little bit more confident.”
