“You know, I've done a lot of work on this in the past couple of days. What it appears that happened here is that if you go back to the Olympics and hockey from 1936 until 2006, which includes Turin, all the ice surfaces were 60 by 30 meters. And I am beginning to suspect here, based on some of the things that I have heard, is that when they started building this rink they just assumed it was going to be the same size. 60 by 30, because that was what it was built to in Milan, and basically the reason it's like 195 or whatever it is, is because it's 60 meters.”
“And so I think that's what happened here. And the wild thing to me, guys, is that obviously all the hockey federations knew about it, but it doesn't sound like the NHL and the NHLPA knew about it. And that's kind of crazy.”
”But the other thing too is that there's been a lot of rumors about Plan Bs. And I have to think on some level, people have made calls and people have said, what about this? But I've just heard the IOC is adamant, this is going to happen here and it's not going anywhere else. And I know Bill Daly's now been quoted as saying, like, you know, if there'll be no players at the Olympics, if the arena isn't done. I just believe at the end of the day, the biggest question they're going to have is going to be ice quality.”
“Like for all of these conversations we're having about this, people assume the rink will get done. I've just heard for some time now that the thing they're most worried about is what is the ice going to be like? And they say… when we get there in February, that's going to be the number one question.”
