from Andrew Podnicks of IIHF.com,

The IIHF study comparing 2006 and 2014 Olympics to the 2008 World Championship (Quebec City and Halifax, NHL ice) and 2010 Vancouver shows that scoring chances are 3.7 times more frequent on the smaller ice.

What’s the difference? Many factors.

The most obvious is the simple fact that the European surface is 15’ wider, but there’s a much more important and more subtle reason as well. The IIHF standard is to divide the rink into three zones of equal length: the area from the end red line to the blue line; between the blue lines; from the blue line to the end red line at the other end.

The NHL is less symmetrical. Its end red line, for instance, is only 11’ from the end boards while the IIHF is 13’. The NHL believes the area behind the goal line is not particularly conducive to creating offence, and numbers suggest it’s right.

Even more significant, the NHL blue line is 64’ to the end red line but the IIHF blue line is only 58’ to that line.

What does this translate to? Quite simply, the offensive zones in the NHL are narrower and longer. The total square footage is 5,440. In the IIHF, the area is wider and shorter, totalling 5,800 sq. ft.

more (written before today's early semifinal game)...