Gino Reda: The Olympics are a showcase of the greatest talent in the world, so you’d think they’d be competing in world-class facilities, but that’s not going to be the case for the Olympic hockey tournament.
Insider Chris Johnston just came back from touring the rink in Milan and CJ: watering cans to fix holes in the ice, a scoreboard that looks like it came out of a high school gymnasium - beyond what the officials are saying publicly, from what you saw, is that barn worthy of hosting the Olympic Games?
Chris Johnston: Well it certainly wasn’t as of this weekend. I can tell you what I walked in to at Santagiulia Arena was pretty shocking. Both the level of disrepair and chaos with it very much being an active construction site. But also you do think of this as being the marquee international event in hockey.
It’s been 12 years since NHL players have been to the Olympic Games, and you just imagine it happening on a stage a little bit grander than the one that exists right now in Milan.
There is still time to work, and the expectation is that it’s going to be a pretty crazy three to four weeks in terms of the amount of construction and workers there around the clock getting it up to a higher standard, but there’s definitely an undercurrent here from the NHL and the NHLPA that things should be better, could be better.
At this point in time I certainly feel comfortable and confident that they are going to go ahead with the Olympic games, but it may not be exactly what we associate with the sort of prestige of that event.
Reda: It’s one thing to call it playable, it’s another thing to call it world class. Team Canada’s huge edge is supposed to be speed and skill, but if the ice is soft and slushy, could that take away the ability for guys like MacKinnon and McDavid to dominate there the way they’ve been dominating on real ice that we have here in North America?
Johnston: Well Canada has built a team that I think they feel comfortable can win any way necessary. Obviously you have some of the best offensive players in the world, MacKinnon, McDavid, Celebrini on this team, but they’ve also brought a different element with Tom Wilson and Brad Marchand and I do think that they’re comfortable adapting to the circumstances that end up existing there.
If there’s one positive that came out of the test event over the weekend, I think it is the ice, which sounds a little ironic of course because there was the hole that developed in the first period of the first game there Friday night, but they did play six subsequent games on that surface and it did seem to get better.
A little snowy at times, and what I was told is that they will make some adjustments to the temperature in the building to account for that.
There does seem to be hope that over the next few weeks they’re able to get this surface up to something a little bit more NHL quality.
We did focus quite a bit here in recent months about the fact that the rink dimensions are not exactly NHL specs, but I can say from being in the building that it wasn’t all that noticeable. We’ll see what the top players in the world feel once they get on there and play games, but I don’t think that’s going to have a huge bearing over the style of play or which team ultimately ends up with the gold medal.
Reda: Meanwhile, more injury concerns for Team Canada as Brayden Point twisted his knee right after he scored a goal last night. After the game, Lightning and Team Canada head coach Jon Cooper looked pretty sombre, looks like he’s worried. What’s the latest on Point and where Team Canada could go from here?
Johnston: Jon Cooper also referred to it as the elephant in the room with a big tournament on the horizon. I think his body language and what we saw with Point leaving the ice unable to put any weight on his right leg as he was doing so is a huge cause for concern. We don’t have a ton of clarity in terms of the extent of the injury at this stage.
One complication is that the Lightning are on the road right now, they’re playing back-to-backs, Point travelled with the team to Pittsburgh where they play on Tuesday but they don’t have the same access, obviously, to the medical facilities as if this happened at home.
So they’re going to get Point examined here and make a determination on what his timeline is, but it has huge bearing, because we’re not too far off from the Olympic games. We know players will do absolutely anything they can to be ready for Team Canada, we just have to see exactly what Point is dealing with after that scary injury last night.
Reda: We should talk about the timing of this, because a lot of fans are wondering at what point do the Canadians and other countries have to submit their rosters so they’re not suffering because of injuries? What is the timeline on that?
Johnston: The NHL charters fly to Milan leaving February 7, so at that point in time your roster is your roster.
Teams are allowed to bring 25 players, so obviously everyone will have injury replacements or other players on hand in Milan but beyond that you can’t make changes so there’s still a few weeks to work with, whether it’s Point or Tom Wilson or any of the other Canadian players currently dealing with injuries where decisions have to be made.
On the flip side of that equation, if you’re asking someone to come, you’re going to want to give them adequate heads up to prepare for the Olympic games, so I think it is a little bit of a balancing act.
Team Canada has kept a number of forwards on the testing list, so those players know they’re effectively on standby. That list includes Sam Bennett, Connor Bedard, Wyatt Johnston, Mark Scheifele, and others, Morgan Geekie as well, so they do have other options and I think this is where the benefit of Canada’s depth comes in as unfortunately you have to leave some of those players off initially but you do have them to call on if needed here in the next few weeks.
One thing to note too is that management is looking, if a player goes down, to replace his skillset with one that’s a bit similar, so Point’s an offensive player when he’s at his best, he’s scored 50 goals in a season before, is with Canada to be on the wing, potentially in the top six for Team Canada, so if he’s unable to go here because of this injury, you’re probably looking at players that can fill that kind of role in terms of who that replacement would be.
Reda: Canada opens the Olympic hockey tournament four weeks from [Wednesday].
