NHL vs Olympic sized rinks

[Petey21]

Does anyone know the history behind the differences in rink sizes in the NHL (200x85 ft) compared to the Olympic sizes (200x100 ft)? What was the original size of a hockey rink, and when and why was the other one "invented"? To me it doesn't make any sense to have two different sizes, it'd make more sense if all rinks around the world were the same size.

Also, what leagues use the different sizes? The NHL, AHL and the Canadian junior leagues all use the NHL size, right? Are there other leagues doing so? How about American college leagues like CCHA and others? What about the lesser known minor leagues?

In Europe most leagues use the standard Olympic sized rinks, but I believe at least Finland and possibly some other country as well use some rinks that are somewhat inbetween the NHL and Olympic sizes, in Finland they seem to average around 200x92 ft but this varies slightly from arena to arena, some are even a little bit shorter than 200 ft.

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[arrbez]

I think some US colleges have different sized rinks, but I could be wrong...

I imagine that way back in the day there were rinks of every size, and European and North American hockey people just decided to standardize them differently when it came to creating leagues...