2010 Olympics to be played on NHL Ice

[asuth077]

http://tsn.ca/olympics/news_story/?ID=168148&hubname=

What do you guys think? Yay or Nay?

I am not sure I like this. I kind of enjoyed the extra space and knowing that it was different for the NHL players. Kind of breaks tradition too.

I wonder if this affects international teams at all?

[snade831]

doesnt bother me, and its saving money.

[toyboy88]

probably will have a significant change for international players most likely

[DelSoln]

Certainly an advantage for North America.

[Gondi Stylez]

[Akagi Redsuns]

That's too bad. I always enjoyed watching International/Olympic hockey because of it's larger ice surface.

Shouldn't the host city be responsible for making sure there is suitable venues for these events, either existing or to be built? If not they should not be bidding to host the Olympics...no?? I don't get it.

[Kirbs17]

Fasel is right, it would have been stupid to waste 10 million bucks on a 4 meter difference. Smart idea. The rest of the Olymnpics are so over budget that they have to start cutting corners like this when and where ever they can

[cman]

Good for us, shitty for everyone else.
Talk about home city advantage, maybe we should give North Americans a 1 second head start in all the speed skating events too.
I really thought the IOC would stand up and say there is no way, but so much for that.
Go Canada.

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by cman
Good for us, shitty for everyone else.
Talk about home city advantage, maybe we should give North Americans a 1 second head start in all the speed skating events too.
I really thought the IOC would stand up and say there is no way, but so much for that.
Go Canada.

So are you saying when the Olympics were played in Europe with bigger ice surfaces the Europeans were given an unfair advantage?

Fact of the matter is, the worlds best hockey is played on NHL ice, so that's what the worlds best players should play on.

Personally I love the Olympic size ice surface, but I see absolutely no problem with them playing on NHL sized rinks. The marquee European players don't seem to have any difficulty playing on it.

[cman]

No they were not given an advantage as it was previously IOC regulation size was it not.
Bye changing that for olympics stationed in NA I would say that is giving them an advantage.

[shtock99]

how is it an advantage all the countrys hockey players play in the nhl anyways, maybe for the ladies it will be an advantage but it doesnt matter cause canada or the usa will win that anyways

[cman]

Most of the teams are not composed of all NHL players, off the top of my head I believe only 3 maybe 4 were in this past olympics. All the rest have euro league stars in their rosters as well.

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by cman
No they were not given an advantage as it was previously IOC regulation size was it not.
Bye changing that for olympics stationed in NA I would say that is giving them an advantage.

So how is it that having olympic size ice wasn't giving an unfair advantage to the Europeans?

Yes, it's true not all teams are made up of NHL players, but nobody really gives a fuck about Kzakastan and France anyway.

In the top 6 teams the Eurostars are few and far between, Canada, Finland, Russia, United States, Sweden, Czechs are all made of mostly NHL players.

[shtock99]

what he said ^^^ the top 6 contending teams, and dont forget slovakia so 7 teams with the very least 80% of there team made up of nhl'ers

[Dren]

nice idea

[asuth077]

My issue is that it seems like Vancouver is just cutting corners. I mean you bid for an Olympics, plan away for a few years and make all these promises about the best games ever then go "Oh Crap"?

I just hope thats the only thing they are cutting corners on or we may have another Montreal Olympic Stadium fiasco on our hands.