From Clay Satow: "I think it's just a fact of life now that the Frozen Four will
need to be in an NHL sized rink."
 
This is really a shame.  One of the best things about college hockey is that
Olympic sized rinks promote a more exciting, skating style of play versus the
NHL.
 
The trend in building new college hockey arenas is to have the larger ice
surface, but the big boys still build their tiny ice sheets.  I assume that the
current NHL rules demand that new arenas must be 200 x 85, but has the NHL ever
considered easing this restriction?  I can think of several advantages to
playing on the larger surface including:  promoting a more exciting style of
play; limiting the prevalence/effectiveness of the "enforcers" who can't skate
well; and most importantly, more advertising space on the boards, and more arena
seating closer to the ice surface which means teams could have more prime (ie.
expensive) seating.
 
I realize this breaks away from pure college hockey discussion, but it should be
a nice respite for all of us from face shields and Title IX.
 
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