MILAN – From its size and shape to its texture and feel, the ice for the Milano Cortina Olympic ice hockey tournaments has come under close scrutiny even before the first puck drops.

On Wednesday, Slovakian men’s team forward Tomas Tatar raised a new observation: the ice seems to make a strange noise.

“I’m not saying it’s bad,” Tatar, a former NHL player now in the Swiss National League, told reporters after practicing at the newly built Santagiulia arena in Milan. “It’s just that the sound is weird. You’re not really used to it, so I don’t really know what it means or why it is, but there are some spots on the ice when you skate that have that weird sound.”

Most players and coaches, however, say they are ready to adapt to the Olympic playing surfaces at Santagiulia and Milano Rho, which are shorter than NHL and PWHL standards.

Workers were rushing to prepare Santagiulia on Wednesday, with the home women’s team set to start their Olympic campaign there on Thursday. Meanwhile, players and coaches at Milano Rho generally approved of their ice conditions.

“It takes time for ice like this, when it’s not used all the time, to gain form,” said U.S. women’s coach John Wroblewski, after the 2025 world champions wrapped up practice at Milano Rho. “Pucks will skip all over the place these first couple of days, and the ice is a little more what you’d call ‘brittle’… but give these players two games, and the ice conditions will be exactly what they expect.”

-Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari, additional reporting by Amy Tennery in Milan; Editing by Toby Davis/Reuters