SUNRISE, Fla. — Prepare to brake early.

Those Olympic end-boards might come at you faster than imagined.

Team USA captain Auston Matthews learned this week, like the rest of us, that the ice surface for the Milano Cortina Winter Games will be nearly four feet shorter than a standard NHL-sized ice rink.

This development — first broadcasted Monday by Team Canada assistant coach Peter DeBoer in his appearance on Real Kyper & Bourne — only adds a layer of questions on the 16,000-seat Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, which is also battling construction delays.

How might a truncated ice surface impact best-on-best game play?

“I don’t know. Just hoping it gets ready on time, to be honest,” Matthews said Wednesday, after his Toronto Maple Leafs practised on the regular-sized Amerant Bank

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