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2023 World Juniors

If they truly mean Minneapolis only, I assume they would use the Target Center and Mariucci. Mariucci should be reduced to NHL size by then.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
Russo hinted the X and Wild are interested
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Gutsy, but I like it. The fear of course is having an over half empty 18k arena. If they price things right, it could work. Jets fans come down en masse for their games against the Wild, so a little distance from the border may not matter so much.

That leaves the secondary arena. It would likely be one of the two aforementioned Mariucci or Target Center. TRIA rink only holds 1200, I think that going too low. My personal pick in a perfect world would be the Coliseum. Hell, make it the primary. :^)

https://twitter.com/vintagemnhockey/...xqAD8f-ZmBmaDw

Edit: The refrigeration was removed years ago. Oh well lots of time to get it back in there!
 
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I would leave the X out of it save for perhaps the gold medal game. They could do Mariucci and Ridder which imho would be better than Target Center.
 
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That gives potential for Mariucci to host the World Championships if they’re moving to 90’ wide. Probably won’t ever happen but that possibility would exist.
 
So, why did Olympic lose to NHL? 20 years ago, everyone would probably have bet the other way.
 
Kepler said:
So, why did Olympic lose to NHL? 20 years ago, everyone would probably have bet the other way.
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Good question. I am not sure. I just remember when they were building the new Mariucci in the 90's there was no question it was going to be Olympic size. In hindsight that appears to have been a very poor decision.

If I were to guess, I would say that the best reason that it lost was NHL players playing in the Olympics.
 
ScoobyDoo said:
Good question. I am not sure. I just remember when they were building the new Mariucci in the 90's there was no question it was going to be Olympic size. In hindsight that appears to have been a very poor decision.

If I were to guess, I would say that the best reason that it lost was NHL players playing in the Olympics.
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But by that logic it could have gone the other way, right? That could have been pressure to go Olympic everywhere?

Even though we never looked quite as effective on the big sheet, I really wish Olympic had won. Players are monsters compared to 1926. Either remove another player or increase the sheet size.
 
Kepler said:
So, why did Olympic lose to NHL? 20 years ago, everyone would probably have bet the other way.
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European players learned to dislike the Olympic ice. Selanne made a point that it was actually easier for defensemen, you came off the boards to go take a shot and on the Olympic sheet it would take longer to get a good angle and allow a defenseman to get in the way.
 
Jimjamesak said:
European players learned to dislike the Olympic ice. Selanne made a point that it was actually easier for defensemen, you came off the boards to go take a shot and on the Olympic sheet it would take longer to get a good angle and allow a defenseman to get in the way.
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Exact opposite of the old Gahden, where the distance from the red to blue was so short you had no hope of getting into the play. That made it a lot of fun, TBH.
 
Kepler said:
So, why did Olympic lose to NHL? 20 years ago, everyone would probably have bet the other way.
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I, too, thought that. But...

Every coach I've spoken to over the years, especially those years I covered the D3 championship in Lake Placid, said Olympic size doesn't create any more scoring chances. In fact just the opposite. It's easier to keep the puck out wide and thus cut down on closer shots. They said, it always came down to protecting the box -- the areas between the dots and the goal line to the top of the circles. Everything else was miscellaneous space, so why create more miscellaneous space?

The way the game has developed, Olympic size became "good in theory, but bad in practice."

EDIT: I see Jim said pretty much the same thing. BTW, when Lake Placid renovated their arena two years ago, they made the ice size adjustable.
 
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Russell Jaslow said:
I, too, thought that. But...

Every coach I've spoken to over the years, especially those years I covered the D3 championship in Lake Placid, said Olympic size doesn't create any more scoring chances. In fact just the opposite. It's easier to keep the puck out wide and thus cut down on closer shots. They said, it always came down to protecting the box -- the areas between the dots and the goal line to the top of the circles. Everything else was miscellaneous space, so why create more miscellaneous space?

The way the game has developed, Olympic size became "good in theory, but bad in practice."

EDIT: I see Jim said pretty much the same thing. BTW, when Lake Placid renovated their arena two years ago, they made the ice size adjustable.
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I thought the same for years too, especially since Anchorage and Fairbanks had/have Olympic sheets for years. It wasn’t until I saw the interviews with guys like Selanne and why Finland moved to smaller sheets (Finland is mostly 92’ wide these days) that the lightbulb clicked.
 
Yeah, I fell into the same trap. I always thought that then I heard some of the arguments against and it made sense. NHL size is just better overall.
 
The corners are usually pretty deep as well (Mariucci’s are insanely square) dissuading chasing and trying to start a forecheck after dumping it in. Makes for some very boring stretches of play.
 
state of hockey said:
Supposedly shifting to NHL size this off-season. Finally.

Edit: Never mind. I guess they’re going to 90’ wide. Really rounding out the corners to 24’ radius as well.
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Every time someone mentions mariuccis Olympic size ice I think of the Cornell coach. That year of thr all wcha frozen four-he could not stop whining about having to play on the big ice sheet
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
Every time someone mentions mariuccis Olympic size ice I think of the Cornell coach. That year of thr all wcha frozen four-he could not stop whining about having to play on the big ice sheet
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Funny thing is that now with a lot of time having passed and the sample size being quite large, whatever advantage has been claimed to exist doesn’t appear to translate to wins and losses.
 
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