I shoot sports in manual mode with ISO set to auto, 1/800 shutter speed is minimum for ice hockey and 1/1,000 is preferred. Shoot with the widest aperture available (lowest f number) Depending upon light level, you may run into an issue with the maximum aperture of the 100-400 lens forcing the ISO higher than you would like but noise is better than motion blur. Most of the time for sports I am using f2.8 lenses with the aperture wide open. Higher noise and required noise reduction reduces your ability to retain cleanly detailed cropped images so use your "zoom" choice and location to try to maximize the desired image on the sensor in order to minimize cropping in post.
For exposure metering, try both spot and center weighted to see which provides the best exposure accuracy. Which is best will depend to some extent on the uniform color scheme relative to the ice. Shoot in RAW, not JPG, so that you have much more control over the final image in post.
Shooting location is everything in sports and in general you want to be as low as possible so choose your seating accordingly to get up close and down low. Even with sidelines access in football, I am often kneeling to get a decent angle on a running play.
Attached images were captured with a pair of 1DX III bodies using EF 70-200 f2.8 and EF 400 f2.8 glass at an away football game Friday night that started over an hour late because the field was full of holes and looked like the golf course from the movie Caddy Shack so it required serious maintenance before kickoff. And the last image in this group shows what goes wrong when the photographer is out of position. I was not expecting the play to unfold like it did and I was shooting with the wrong body/lens combo AND trying to run down the sideline while shooting. I "found" the kicking practice net on my way down the sideline and was hopping on one leg to keep my balance while capturing the running back going in for the score. Definitely NOT a great moment in my sports photography history! 🤣 As many events as I have shot, I sometimes still need a reminder of the importance of being in the right place at the right time.
With shutter speed at 1/1,000 and using f2.8 glass wide open, ISO varied from 3,200 to 20,000 at this field. Typically in ice hockey the illumination is much more even across the arena but depending upon the venue it will probably vary some so shooting with fixed ISO is probably a bad idea.
Rodger
