Men's Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 Road to Milano Cortina 2026

[Bailer 79]

The fact is, any country can simply refuse to build a certain stadium or track, depending on the popularity of the sport. The hosting nation has to make sacrifices if they are keen on hosting the Olympics. If no country is willing to build the necessary infrastructure, it will be difficult to find a suitable host.

[copravolley 548]

Munich once wanted to host the 2022 Olympics, but people voted no in a referendum. The same thing happened with Oslo, and it's the same with Switzerland every 4 years- they also can host some OG in winter, but peole are against this.

Edited January 10 by copravolley

[Quaker2001 270]

4 hours ago, NearPup said:

Yes and now France doesn’t want to build a speed skating oval (even a temporary one).

 

Like to be clear, I have no problem with France winning a winter Olympic bid. I think Nice is a great city to anchor a Winter Olympic. My issue is that the bid that won 2030 was basically “ya we want to host the Winter Olympics and we’ll figure out stuff later”. To a degree every Olympic game is a work in progress but that one took it to the extreme.

The IOC scared off every would-be bidder (the pandemic didn't help) and had to re-open the process where they needed to do anything they could to make sure they could hold off Salt Lake until 2034.  I hope the French are able to pull it off or else it would take some of the luster off of what we all witnessed in Paris

[hckošice 15,715]

Our public TV was obviously there for the testing  

 

1500 workers are working on the arena, still lot of things to finish but the ice is apparently in good quality and the dimensions are really unusual, that neutral zone looks so tiny, anyway it was an agreement between NHL and IIHF so it was known in advance. Pretty sure, there will be plenty of offsides 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[phelps 8,343]

1 minute ago, hckošice said:

Our public TV was obviously there for the testing  

 

1500 workers are working on the arena, still lot of things to finish but the ice is apparently in good quality and the dimensions are really unusual, that neutral zone looks so tiny, anyway it was an agreement between NHL and IIHF so it was known in advance. Pretty sure, there will be plenty of offsides 

 

  Hide contents

 

 

c'mon! it's just 45cm less than the typical NHL arenas on each side of the neutral zone (and anything else is exactly a NHL-size design)

 

and it's the same size of every main European arena (I mean, the O2 in Prague and the Globen in Stockholm -just to name the last 2 sites of the world champs and of the NHL European trips- are both 60*26 meters, just like this place)

[hckošice 15,715]

4 minutes ago, phelps said:

c'mon! it's just 45cm less than the typical NHL arenas on each side of the neutral zone (and anything else is exactly a NHL-size design)

 

and it's the same size of every main European arena (I mean, the O2 in Prague and the Globen in Stockholm -just to name the last 2 sites of the world champs and of the NHL European trips- are both 60*26 meters, just like this place)

Yeah, I know it is 60x26, and I am fine with using NHL sized rinks, no problem with that, but the NZ looks really silly here, I guess it is just a matter of being used to it. 

 

I took a look to the Stockholm rink for the Global series and it does not look so tiny. Maybe it is also simply a matter of angle from where it was filmed at the end

[Bailer 79]

I don't mind how the neutral zone looks. I hate how they put blue temporary seats instead of black.

[hckošice 15,715]

On 1/6/2026 at 11:35 AM, hckošice said:

 TEAM LATVIA 

 

 

Goaltenders:

 

Elvis Merzļikins (Columbus Blue Jackets, NHL, ) 

Kristers Gudļevskis (Fischtown Pinguins, ) 

Artūrs Šilovs (Pittsburgh Penguins, NHL, ) 

 

Defencemen:

 

Uvis Balinskis (Florida Panthers, NHL, ) 

Oskars Cibuļskis (Herning Blue Fox, ) 

Ralfs Freibergs (HC Vítkovice, ) 

Jānis Jaks (HC Energie Karlovy Vary, ) 

Roberts Mamčics (HC Energie Karlovy Vary, ) 

Kristiāns Rubīns (HC Škoda Plzeň, ) 

Alberts Šmits (Jukurit Mikkeli, ) 

Kristaps Zīle (Bílí Tygři Liberec, ) 

 

Forwards:

 

Rodrigo Ābols (Philadelphia Flyers, NHL, ) 

Rūdolfs Balcers (ZSC Lions, ) 

Oskars Batņa (Lahti Pelicans, ) 

Teodors Bļugers (Vancouver Canucks, NHL, ) 

Roberts Bukarts (HC Pioneers Vorarlberg, ICEHL,  ) 

Kaspars Daugaviņš (Selber Wölfe Huskies,  II. ) 

Mārtiņš Dzierkals (HC Sparta Praha, ) 

Haralds Egle (HC Energie Karlovy Vary, ) 

Zemgus Girgensons (Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL, ) 

Renārs Krastenbergs (HC Olomouc, ) 

Ēriks Mateiko (Hershey Bears, AHL, ) 

Dans Ločmelis (Providence Bruins, AHL, ) 

Eduards Tralmaks (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL, ) 

Sandis Vilmanis (Charlotte Checkers, AHL, ) 

Eriks Mateiko suffered injury and is out, undergoing achilles tendon surgery.

 

Latvia will announce his replacement in the following days

[hckošice 15,715]

The atmosphere growing, let share here some stats ( incomplete ofc since  still not released for god know why reason the official roster)

 

So voila :

 

 

Teams ranked by NHL points !

 

1.   866 Points in NHL

2.   672

3.   634

4.   458

5.   251

6.   185

7.   177

8.   92

9.   62

10.   28

11.   17

12.   0

 

 

Amount of NHLers by Teams + NHL Goaltenders (Players who played at least 1 NHL game last and this eason)

 

1.   22 skaters + 3 Goalies  (25 NHLers)

4.   21 + 3  (24)

5.   9 + 3   (12)

6.   9 + 1   (10)

7.   7 + 0   (7)

8.   6 + 1    (7)

9.   4 + 2   (6)

10.   3 + 1    (4)

11.   1 + 0    (1)

12.    0 + 0   (0)

 

 

Teams ranked by amount of different leagues they players were picked from

 

1.   9 different leagues

2.  and    8 

6.   6

7.   4

8.  &   2

10.  &    1 (only NHL)

 

 

Amount of players by leagues:  and in many Teams they have players:

 

1. NHL (USA/CAN league)   146 players    -  in 11 teams

2.  league      33   - in 9 teams

3.  &     26    - CZE leagues players are in 6 teams, GER league in 4 teams

5. ICEHL  (AUT/ITA/HUN/SLO league)  16   -  in 4 teams

6.  league   12   -  in 4 teams

7. AHL  (USA/CAN 2nd level league)   11   -  in 5 teams

8.  &   leagues  7   -  SWE league players in 4 teams, FRA league in 1 team

10.  & KHL (RUS/BLR/CHN league)  4   - DEN league in 3 teams, KHL players in 2 teams

12.  league   3 -  in 1 team

13.  & Alpsleague (ITA/CRO/SLO/AUT competition)  2  - SVK league in 2 teams, Alps in 1 team

15. NCAA (USA college competition)   1  - in 1 team

 

 

Teams by leagues

 

  - all NHL

  - all NHL

  - all NHL

 - NHL, SUI

 - NHL, AHL, SUI, CZE, SWE, FIN

 - NHL, SUI

 - NHL, AHL, SUI, CZE, SWE, SVK, KHL, NCAA

 - NHL, AHL, SUI, GER

 - NHL, SUI, FIN, CZE, SVK, ICEHL, KHL, FRA

 - NHL, AHL, SUI, FIN, CZE, ICEHL, DEN, GER

 - NHL, AHL, SUI, SWE, FIN, CZE, ICEHL, DEN, GER

 - SUI, SWE, CZE, ICEHL, DEN, GER, AlpsHL, GBR

 

Edited January 14 by hckošice

[JoshMartini007 2,780]

5 hours ago, hckošice said:

Teams ranked by NHL points !

 

1.   866 Points in NHL

2.   672

3.   634

4.   458

5.   251

6.   185

7.   177

8.   92

9.   62

10.   28

11.   17

12.   0

To try and normalize it here's the points/NHL skater (no goalies)

 

1.  39.4

2.  30.8

3.  30.5

4.  28.8

5.  27.9

6.  21.8

7.  20.7

8.  19.7

9.  17.0

10.  13.1

11.  7.0

12.  0.0

Edited January 14 by JoshMartini007