How Olympic hockey differs from the NHL
When NHL players return to the Winter Olympics in 2026, one familiar element of the North American game will be absent: fighting.
In the National Hockey League, on-ice altercations while penalized have long been part of the sport’s culture. International hockey operates under a different standard.
The International Ice Hockey Federation, which oversees Olympic competition, prohibits fighting outright. Its rulebook states that fighting is “not part of international ice hockey’s DNA.” Players who engage in a fight during an Olympic or other IIHF tournament can be ejected and face suspension.
Those suspensions do not necessarily end with the tournament. A ban issued during the Olympics even in the gold medal game would carry over to the next IIHF event.
Read also: Keir Starmer calls Ratcliffe’s immigration comments ‘offensive,’ seeks apology
The NHL’s approach is far less severe. Players who fight are typically assessed a five-minute major penalty and allowed to remain in the game, unless additional penalties apply.
NHL players back on Olympic ice
The difference in rules will be on display at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina, where 12 men’s teams and 10 women’s teams will compete. Great Britain did not qualify for either tournament.
The Games will mark the first Olympic appearance for NHL players since 2014, ending a 12-year absence and bringing many of the league’s top players back into international competition.
How Olympic games are decided
Each team has six players on the ice at a time five skaters and a goaltender drawn from a 22-player game-day roster. Regulation consists of three 20-minute periods.
Read also: Another change as Forest seek fresh start
If the score is tied at the end of regulation, overtime rules depend on the round. Overtime can last from five to 20 minutes, and teams are reduced to three skaters each, creating more space and typically more scoring chances.
The first goal wins. If no goal is scored except in the gold medal game the winner is determined by a penalty shootout. The championship game, however, continues until a goal is scored in open play.
For viewers more familiar with NHL physicality, the Olympic tournament presents a stricter interpretation of the rules one that leaves no room for fighting.
Sources: IIHF rulebook, BBC
