Olympics on NHL ice should make for faster, better hockey

BEIJING (AP) — NHL players are not at the Olympics. NHL ice is, and that should make for better hockey.

The Olympic tournament is taking place on 200-by-85-foot surfaces for the first time since the 2010 Vancouver Games, when Canada beat the United States for gold. It's an advantage for the North American teams that want to play a more direct style and a boost for the chance of seeing fast-paced, quality action that's often lacking on wider, international-sized rinks.

“I do think the games do get a little bit more entertaining just because there’s so much more happening than obviously on the bigger ice, where there’s a little bit more room for everyone,” said Sweden center Joakim Nordstrom, a veteran of almost 500 NHL games. “On the smaller ice, you can really see the best players separate themselves from the others. They still are able to do the skilled stuff. I think it’s pretty exciting to see NHL-level skill guys, what they can do in the tighter areas.”

In the absence of NHL talent at the Pyeongchang Olympics four years ago, the Russians used their talent surplus to win gold in a tournament that was lacking end-to-end excitement. Canada used the surface to its benefit at the 2014 Sochi Games by holding on to the puck for the majority of every game on a dominant run to gold.

Don't expect any team to be able to do that this time, but the Americans and Canadians are plenty comfortable with a north-south game that the NHL surface allows for.

“This is where guys have grown up playing,” Canada coach Jeremy Colliton said. “We’re a big team, comfortable in the battle areas, and that’s what we’re going to try and make it that way when we play.”

Canada held pre-Olympic camp in Switzerland practicing on the bigger international