NHL and NHLPA say they're pleased after test events at new Olympic hockey arena in Milan

NEW YORK (AP) — The NHL and NHL Players’ Association said in a joint statement Monday they are pleased that test events at the new hockey arena for the Milan Cortina Olympics were “a good trial run and provided important insight into the current status” of construction.

League and union officials were present at Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena over the weekend, as organizers put on games to test the ice surface while the process of finishing locker rooms and other facilities continues. Play is set to begin on the women's side Feb. 5 and the men's side Feb. 11.

“While challenges are inherent with new ice and a still-under-construction venue, we expect that the work necessary to address all remaining issues will continue around the clock,” they said in a statement said. “The NHL and NHLPA will continue to monitor the situation, standing ready to consult and advise on the work being done to ensure that the local organizing committee, the IOC, and the IIHF deliver a tournament and playing conditions befitting the world’s best players.”

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the the test events went OK, from the reports he received, while acknowledging there is still more to be finished.

"There are still challenges because the building is still under construction and the ice is new," Bettman said in Buffalo, New York, where he was to announce the Sabres are hosting the draft there in June. "We’ve been assured that, or we expect, that everything that needs to be done on a timely basis will get done. But, as you know, it’s not our event. We’re invited guests. But we’ve offered to help and consult and advise as they feel they need and would be appropriate because we do have a little bit of expertise in that area.”

Officials in Milan, including International Ice Hockey Federation President Luc Tardif, recently expressed confidence that NHL players will participate next month as scheduled. Concerns were mounting given that the rink had not yet been completed less than month before the start of the Games.

Bettman believes he'll have a better idea of where things stand in Milan once he arrives.

“It’s always been important for our players to play best on best at the Olympics,” Bettman said. “That’s why we agreed to take the break and have them go. In the final analysis, that question has to get answered by the IOC and the IIHF.”

AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow in Buffalo, New York, contributed.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Wipptal Broncos players warm up at the Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena, in Milan, where Ice Hockey discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Luc Tardif, IIHF President talks to reporters at the Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena, in Milan, where Ice Hockey discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

The Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics is seen on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (Gian Mattia D'Alberto /LaPresse via AP)

The Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics is seen on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (Gian Mattia D'Alberto /LaPresse via AP)

The Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics is seen on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (Gian Mattia D'Alberto /LaPresse via AP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wildlife crews are no longer actively searching for two juvenile gray wolves who were part of a pack that killed dozens of cows and calves last summer in Northern California’s Sierra Valley, an official said Tuesday.

The two wolves were members of the Beyem Seyo pack that in 2025 killed or injured at least 92 calves and cows in a seven-month period, according to a report released last week by two researchers with the University of California, Davis.

Wolves in the state are protected under California law and the federal Endangered Species Act. Under former President Joe Biden, officials said they planned a first-ever national recovery plan for wolves, but President Donald Trump’s administration ended that initiative in November.

In October, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it had euthanized four gray wolves — three adults and a juvenile — from the Beyem Seyo pack after “an unprecedented level of livestock attacks across the Sierra Valley” by a single wolf pack since the canids returned to the state. It also said it planned to capture and relocate the remaining two wolves to wildlife facilities to prevent their behavior from spreading to other wolves in California.

Gray wolves primarily prey on wild animals like deer and elk, not livestock, but the pack became used to killing cows and calves, the department said.

“These wolves had become habituated to preying on cattle, a feeding pattern that persisted and was being taught to their offspring which would leave to form their own packs and could teach them the same cattle-preying behavior,” the department said at the time.

But following weeks of searching for the remaining two wolves, officials have “reduced efforts to capture” them, Katie Talbot, CDFW Deputy Director of Public Affairs, said in a statement.

“Despite best efforts from CDFW’s expert wolf biologists and law enforcement officers, we have not been able to find or get close enough to these young wolves to safely capture them,” Talbot said.

“We remain hopeful our continued remote monitoring will allow for sightings that will lead to safe capture of these juveniles," she added.

Talbot said that CDFW crews will be working this week on capturing wolves and collaring them throughout the state, including in the Sierra Valley.

Wildlife officials tried for months to prevent the pack from attacking farm animals by using drones, nonlethal bean bags, installing flags or rope to deter them and having officers in the field 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but their efforts failed.

“The efforts that the (CDFW) made were tremendous and heroic but it was too late.” said Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity.

She said that cattle ranchers in the area should have been taking proactive prevention measures for years, including increased human presence around the cattle, keeping the livestock bunched up instead of letting them loose on large grazing pastures, and calving at the same time of year that deer and elk are birthing so wolves have a source of wild prey.

“Ranchers in California have been on notice that wolves were coming since late December 2011, when we got our first wolf. They have been on notice they would establish packs since 2015,” when the first pack was confirmed in Siskiyou County, Weiss said.

Gray wolves were eradicated in California early in the last century because of their perceived threat to livestock, with the last known native wolf killed in 1924 in Lassen County. Since their reintroduction in Idaho and at Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s, they’ve proliferated throughout the West. The recovering population has meant increasing conflict with ranchers.

“It was a horrible summer here for everybody and the emotional strain was probably worse than the financial strain for most people. They did the right thing. We couldn’t go on living the way we were living,” said Rick Roberti, a cattle rancher in Plumas County and president of the California Cattlemen’s Association, who lost several animals.

Economist Tina Saitone and researcher Tracy Schohr said in UC Davis’ quarterly agricultural economics update released Friday that the Beyem Seyo pack killed more livestock than the entire wolf population of Montana killed in 2024 and the killings of farm animals by the wolves in Wyoming in 2023.

In Montana, the state’s 1,100 wolves killed 54 domestic animals in 2024, and Wyoming’s 352 wolves killed 49 livestock in 2023, the scientists said.

In California, about 70 gray wolves were responsible for 175 livestock kills between January and October of last year, with the Beyem Seyo pack responsible for half of the killings, according to CDFW data.

Roberti said the attacks on livestock in Plumas and Sierra counties left many ranchers angry. He said he would like to see certain areas in the state declared “special zones” where people are allowed to hunt wolves that attack livestock.

“We’re pretty much in unison about thinking that it would help if we started taking out the ones that are just killing cattle and are too habituated to man or they’re not afraid of us,” he said.

The predators are a long way from recovery, Weiss said, adding that killing them is not a long-term solution.

“The scientific literature is pretty conclusory that killing wolves to resolve conflicts with livestock is not a solution. It can actually be counterproductive. It can result in there being more conflicts with livestock," she said.

FILE - This remote camera image provided by the U.S. Forest Service shows a female gray wolf and two of the three pups born in 2017 in the wilds of Lassen National Forest in northern California on June 29, 2017. (U.S. Forest Service via AP, File)