As the Olympics began on February 6th, many hockey fans were looking forward to seeing their nation (hopefully) take gold home, with both the Men’s and Women’s teams competing this year. While many don’t know (or don’t care) about the difference in rinks, many internet personalities who talk about hockey are going crazy over the size of Milan’s “Olympic” rink. A normal Olympic hockey rink is about 100 feet wide by 200 feet long; this year’s is significantly different (about 83.5 feet wide by 196.85 feet long). That means that this year’s “Olympic” rink is smaller than the rinks that the National Hockey League (NHL or League National de Hockey in Canada) uses in their games (85 feet by 200 feet). The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has stated that these rinks are suitable for use, as they meet the requirements of the Italian Hockey League (IHL), which plans to utilize the rink in the future. Based on the Olympics website, the 14,000-seat arena is going to be used as a multi-functional venue for sports and live entertainment. 

The construction of the arena began on 11/28/2023 and finished up in late 2025. The arena was officially opened on January 9, 2026, to host the IHL Serie A Semifinals and Final matches. This three-game tournament acted as a test run for the newly finished arena. When using a smaller ice surface, many people are worried about the severity of collisions between players. As NHL stars are more used to 3 more feet in the corners and behind the net, hits, and high-speed movements in that area could lead to more severe injuries than those that occur in the NHL. This is a larger concern for the Men’s tournament, as in Men’s hockey, hitting people is legal. In the women’s tournament, hitting is considered illegal, but contact is permitted. As many Olympic hockey players are on break from either professional or other teams, injuries are a very large worry, as an injury suffered during the Olympics can impact the rest of the season for both the player and their team. An example of this is one of Team Canada’s captains and the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, who didn’t play in the Semi-final or Gold Medal game due to a lower-body injury. This injury is just one example of the possibilities of what might occur during the tournaments.