Due to complaints from the NHL and the NHL Players Association, the IIHF has decided to change the color of the boards at the Santagiulia arena starting right away.
Long-distance goal due to bad boards
“It’s something we all have to deal with, and we play in different arenas every night in the NHL,” Swayman said. “So this is just another challenge we have to take on.”
You might remember when Canada’s goalie Jeremy Swayman let in a goal from center ice after he seemed to lose track of the puck. This made the IIHF decide to fix what they thought was a problem. Now, the IIHF updates the boards during tournaments because of wear. This time, the change was made after a group decision from the IIHF, the IOC, and the Milan Cortina organizing team.
The issue with the boards was their color, which has now been changed to a lighter blue and green rather than the dark turquoise that made it hard for players to see the puck by the boards.
Lighter-colour rinkboard wraps in-place pic.twitter.com/DxLln1eTVF
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) February 17, 2026
This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about problems at Santagiulia. There’s been a lot of discussion about the smaller ice surface, but it hasn’t really changed how the games are played, at least not in a big way.
The Santagiulia Arena was built for the 2026 Olympics and will host all the medal games for both men’s and women’s hockey tournaments. Regarding the goal that Swayman let in, similar things happen regardless of the board color, but Jack Eichel disagrees.
“Most of the time, he would catch that,” said USA forward Jack Eichel. “It’s a wild play. I also lost track of the puck in the lights a few times during the game. The setup is a bit different. ”
Now we’ll find out if the new colors will make a difference in the medal round.
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