Bill Daly -- If Olympic ice unsafe, NHL players won't take part - ESPN

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that if the league's players feel the quality of the ice at the Olympics in Milan is unsafe, «then we're not going to play.»

«It's as simple as that,» Daly told reporters after the NHL board of governors meetings on Monday.

Daly told league owners Monday that he didn't believe construction issues with the Olympic ice hockey rink were «insurmountable.»

The main hockey arena in Milan is scheduled to be finished Feb. 2. The women's hockey tournament begins three days later, and the men's tournament, with NHL players set to participate in the Olympics for the first time in over a decade, begins Feb. 11, leaving very little wiggle room.

The Olympic arenas will feature three games a day for nearly three weeks, which will challenge the resiliency of the ice. Daly categorized the updates the NHL and NHLPA received last week as positive, but said the league was upping its efforts to help see through the arena.

«We have offered and they're utilizing our ice experts and technicians and outside providers,» Daly said. «We're basically moving everybody there to try to help get this done in a way that's acceptable for NHL athletes. And I'm cautiously optimistic it will be fruitful.»

The NHL will have ongoing access to the ice. That will include being on site for a test event scheduled for the main rink from Jan. 9-11.

On Monday, the IIHF acknowledged the two rinks in Milan would be about 3 feet shorter than a standard NHL rink (196.85 feet by 85.3 feet, instead of 200 feet by 85 feet) — which goes against the agreement the NHL and NHLPA signed with the IIHF in July.

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