The NHL isn’t panicking about Olympic rinks yet, but it’s getting close
Elliott Friedman was asked on the Sirius XM NHL Network Radio show Wednesday with Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick about the Olympic Hockey Arena and the NHL’s concerns now that it’s not yet completed.
Transcribed by NHLRumors.com
Scott Laughlin: I think, the big news yesterday, Fritsch was the fact that the NHL, obviously, you can further elaborate on this, they actually sent a delegation at the end of Europe to have the Global Series go to the arena in Italy to see. All Friedge cares about now is whether it can be up and running in time for February.
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Elliot Friedman: “Scott, I think what’s going on here is they’ve gotten some reports about it and they want to send some people out there to confirm it. As it was mentioned to me last night (Tuesday), there’s going to be people from the Players Association going there, so I just heard that.
They’re getting updates all the time, but that’s out of their control. And I, I just think they want to see it before they actually comment. But yes, I had a sense yesterday (Tuesday) of what was going on here. Although, as I wrote, when I asked a few different people, they were definitely concerned, and the dryest answer I got was, “We’ll see when they get there.”
So I think we’ll have a better idea in about a week. Sweden’s games are on the 14th and 16th. So I guess they’ll go right over there. I reminded (Gary) Bettman at one point that when we showed up in Sochi in 2014, they were still building Sochi, so that wasn’t unusual.
But he stressed that while that was true, the rink was prepared in advance. They hosted the World Under-18s 10 months before the 2014 Olympics but have yet to host any events. Then a meeting originally scheduled for December was postponed to January.
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So I would say Scotty is concerned about it, but, they’re determined not to go into any panic mode until they see it next week. “
NHLRumors.com NOTE: As NHLRumors.com has documented, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is unhappy with the delays in completing the Milan Olympic Ice Rink. As he puts it, the NHL and its players are guests of the Olympics. However, the fact that they sent someone to check on the progress of the unfinished rink sets off alarm bells, will this force the NHL to move forward?
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