Team USA’s Bill Guerin ‘not worried’ about readiness of Olympic hockey arena

SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Team USA’s panic meter over the ongoing construction at Milan’s Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, the main venue for next month’s men’s hockey tournament at the Olympic Games, isn’t yet at a breaking point.

Actually, for general manager Bill Guerin, it isn’t even turned on.

“We’re still a month, five weeks away. That’s a lot of time,” Guerin told The Post while his NHL team, the Wild, were en route to a 4-3 overtime loss on Saturday. “I’m not worried about [that] stuff, I’m really not. We’re all in the same boat for all that stuff. So it’s one of those things we can’t let creep into our [minds].”

On Friday, during the arena’s first test event, a game between two Italian clubs was stopped for a hole in the ice, which was patched with a watering can. The Athletic’s Chris Johnston, who was on site in Milan, reported that there were “multiple large holes in the exterior of the building,” contributing to issues with the ice.

While it’s safe to assume the NHL is not thrilled about the situation, the prevailing attitude around the league right now is that come hell or high water, everyone will be getting on a plane to Milan and playing a hockey tournament.

“I don’t ask. I honestly don’t worry about it,” Guerin said, asked whether he was being briefed about the test event. “There’s nothing I can do. I’m somewhat handy but not handy enough to go over there and help them out. I don’t really need to know just yet. I’m confident they’ll get it all done.”

Among other issues with the arena’s construction, which has experienced a myriad of delays: Just three of 14 planned dressing rooms are “anywhere near complete,” per Johnston, and the practice rink doesn’t have usable ice as of yet. The game rink’s capacity, originally billed at 14,000, is reportedly likely to come in at 11,800 because there won’t be time to finish multiple sections.

The dimensions of the ice are also a few feet short, 196.85 feet by 85.3 feet as opposed to the NHL standard 200 by 85.

“I did see what was going on. Obviously being part of it, you’re always aware of what it’s gonna be,” Wild coach John Hynes, an assistant coach on Team USA, said. “In my role, or our role, you have to have confidence in the NHL and the IIHF that they’re gonna make sure it’s gonna be suitable. I’m convinced that for the Olympic Games that things are gonna get worked out.

“I think it was good that they had that game. It’s always those things that you can test it out, now they know what to fix. So to me it’s just more of, there’s work to be done, obviously. But I’m pretty confident that the work will be done the right way and things will go as planned.”

Players who participated in the test event Friday put an optimistic spin on the situation when talking to The Athletic, and games Saturday appeared to go off without a hitch.

“It’s still a work in progress, but the ice was pretty OK,” Florian Wieser of SV Kaltern/Caldaro said, per The Athletic. “It was not bad. I talked with the Zamboni guy. He said it will be good. It was pretty good today, like not bad. I think maybe not perfect, but when the NHLers are coming, I think it will be good.”

Dan Moffatt, the ice master for both hockey arenas in Milan and for the Colorado Avalanche, said in a statement to reporters that the hole that appeared during the game Friday was “in line with the usual process.”

“When we’re speaking of new ice that hasn’t been skated on yet, it’s normal that it responds with cracks, which can also be caused by the ice resurfacer,” Moffatt said in the statement. “On a first occasion, many holes may happen, but here, the ice has been good and only one occurred that was 2 cm wide. We filled it right away and at the end of the period, we passed on it with the ice resurfacer.

“We’re very satisfied because these are minor details and in line with the usual process.”