NHL cautiously optimistic of Olympic participation despite smaller rink size and ice safety concerns

The NHL said Tuesday it remains cautiously optimistic about sending the world's best hockey players to the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in February amid issues with a smaller-than-expected rink size and questions regarding ice quality due to construction delays.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly reiterated that belief in an email to The Associated Press a day after briefing the NHL’s board of governors on the Olympics during their meeting in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“We’re making progress and moving towards the goal, but there doesn’t seem to be anything insurmountable in getting to completion,” Daly told reporters on Monday.

Daly said there’s nothing the NHL or organizers can do about the dimensions of the not-yet-completed 16,000-seat Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena and secondary Rho facility. “It's a structural issue. It would be impossible to correct,” he said.

What can still be addressed is ensuring the ice quality is safe for players, with Daly saying Olympic officials are taking up the NHL’s offer to use their experts to assist once the ice surface is scheduled to be laid in the coming weeks.

“We’re basically moving everybody there to try to help get this done in a way that’s acceptable for NHL athletes,” he said. “I’m cautiously optimistic that’s all going to be fruitful.”

At this point, with the Games less than two months away, Daly said the only issue that would prevent the NHL from returning to Olympic participation for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Games would be safety concerns due to the ice surface.

“Obviously, if the players feel like the ice is unsafe, we’re not going to play. It’s as simple as that,” Daly said. “So whatever flows from that, flows from that. I’m not really all that concerned about it.”

Daly said the completion date of the main rink is set for Feb. 2, three days before the women’s tournament opens and nine days before the men begin play.

The NHL was caught off guard when it became apparent the two rinks’ dimensions will be slightly wider and 3 feet shorter than what the league and International Ice Hockey Federation agreed upon. Daly said the league and NHL Players’ Association have reminded the IIHF that they expect the ice surface to be standard NHL size at the 2030 Winter Games in France.

The ice is already in at Rho, which is playing host to the Group B Under-20 world championship tournament this week. Japan captain Daigo Hotta referred to the ice as feeling “a little soft” during a pre-game skate, but firmed up by game time.

The 19-year-old Hotta, who has played in the U.S. since his family relocated when he was 5, almost immediately noticed the difference in rink dimensions.

“I play back in the States. The rinks are pretty small, but I think this one is one of the smallest rinks I’ve ever played in,” he said Tuesday. “The neutral zone’s smaller. The space between the dots and the boards. I think everything’s a little smaller than normal.”

The head of games operations for Milan Cortina dismissed questions about the rink size by noting the ice surfaces are consistent with IIHF rules, and have the same dimensions as the ones used in Beijing in 2022, and the one in Stockholm, Sweden, on which the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators played twice last month as part of the NHL’s Global Series.

“It is clear that the dimensions of the rink are different, but if you come to play in Europe, all the rinks have this type of size,” Andrea Francisi said Tuesday. “So somehow you have to adapt to this kind of dimension.”

Francisi agreed that a more important issue is the quality of ice “for the spectacular nature of the competition, but also above all for the safety of the athletes.” He expects the ice sheet to begin being laid on Dec. 20, and have it ready within 11 days.

AP Sports Writer Danila Matar in Milan contributed to this report from Milan.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics

A view of the Ice Hockey Arena during the U20 Ice Hockey World Championship between Poland and Italy as a test event for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

An outside view of the Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena, in Milan, where Ice Hockey discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place Italy, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)

A worker sits at the referees desk of the Ice Skating Arena where some Ice Hockey matches of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Italy, Friday, Dec.5, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A view of the Ice Hockey Arena during the U20 Ice Hockey World Championship between Estonia and Japan as a test event for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Kevin Stefanski has seen enough of Shedeur Sanders to make the fifth-round rookie the Cleveland Browns' starting quarterback over the final month of another lost season.

The question is whether Sanders will be under center for the biggest moments down the stretch.

He was on the sideline Sunday when the Browns were going for a 2-point conversion to tie their game against Tennessee with a minute remaining after Sanders had just engineered his fourth touchdown drive and thrown for nearly 400 yards.

Sanders rallied the Browns (3-10) from a 31-17 deficit with two late touchdowns, but after running it in for a 7-yard touchdown, he fumbled the exchange from backup center Luke Wypler, who had replaced starter Ethan Pocic (Achilles) in the third quarter.

Sanders didn't even get the chance to atone for that after throwing a 7-yard touchdown pass to Harold Fannin Jr. with just over a minute remaining to pull the Browns to 31-29 as Stefanski decided on a Wildcat formation for the potential tying 2-point conversion.

Running back Quinshon Judkins took the direct snap but mishandled the ball and failed to pitch it to wide receiver Gage Larvadain on an end around. Judkins ran backward and launched a pass across the field to Larvadain that was batted away as the Titans held on for their second win of the season.

Stefanski, the Browns' sixth-year head coach, took responsibility for the failed 2-point play at the end but he didn't explain why he chose to run the Wildcat with the game on the line rather than leaving in Sanders, who threw for three touchdowns and ran for another in his best game of the three he's started..

Sanders, who fell to the fifth round in the draft after being projected as a top Day 1 pick, threw for 364 yards, the second-most by a rookie quarterback picked 144th overall or later since 1966. Jacksonville’s Gardner Minshew, the 178th pick in 2019, passed for 374 yards against Carolina.

Sanders also joined Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow as the only rookie QBs with at least 350 passing yards, three touchdown passes and a rushing score in a game.

But with the game on the line, Sanders was on the sideline.

“I would wish I would always have the ball in my hand, but that’s not what football is,” Sanders said. “I know we practiced something, and we executed it in practice, and we just didn’t seem to this day. So, I would never go against, you know, kind of like what the call was or anything.”

Stefanski's 2-point decisions weren't the only head-scratchers in Week 14.

One of the biggest blunders came from the league's winningest active head coach, Kansas City's Andy Reid, who went for it on fourth-and-1 from the Chiefs' 31 in a game that was tied at 10 with just under 11 minutes remaining.

Patrick Mahomes’ pass to Rashee Rice was incomplete and the Houston Texans got the ball already in field-goal range. They scored a go-ahead TD and the Chiefs couldn’t recover in a 20-10 loss that dethroned the reigning nine-time champs in the AFC West.

“I was confident we could” convert, Reid said. “I thought it was an opportunity. I was wrong in hindsight. It was wrong. We’ve been pretty good on fourth downs. I messed that one up.”

Reid was actually playing the odds.

The Chiefs were the 13th team since 2000 to go for it on fourth down inside their own 35 in the fourth quarter of a tied game. Others were 8 for 12, with the Bucs the last to do it in the 2023 opener against the Vikings with a conversion that led to a game-winning field goal.

Their 10 points marked the Chiefs' lowest output at Arrowhead Stadium with Mahomes under center.

So, the Chiefs (6-7) will not win a 10th straight AFC West title. After reaching the Super Bowl five times in the last six years, winning three times, they’ll need to win out and get a lot of help just to reach the playoffs.

The Denver Broncos (11-2), winners of 10 straight, weren't in a celebratory mood — at least not publicly — after the Chiefs were eliminated from AFC West contention.

“Everything right now has that ‘ work in progress sign,’” Broncos coach Sean Payton said Monday. “I recognize the question in that the Chiefs’ loss last night eliminated them from winning the division, and yet we have a stretch here with some real good football teams coming in and focusing on what we can do to win the division. The Chargers are very much alive in that battle.”

The Chargers beat the slumping Philadelphia Eagles 22-19 Monday night to stay two games behind the Broncos, whom they play in their regular season finale in Denver next month.

With contributions from AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy in Cleveland.

Behind the Call analyzes the biggest decisions in the NFL during the season.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes speaks during a news conference following an NFL football game against the Houston Texans Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid watches from the sidelines during the first half of an NFL football game against the Houston Texans Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

Tennessee Titans interim head coach Mike McCoy, left, and Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, right, greet each. other after their team's NFL football game in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Browns' Shedeur Sanders (12) and Teven Jenkins (74) celebrate a touchdown in the first half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward, left, and Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) greet each other after an NFL football game in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)