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Tom Wilson found himself in no-man’s land over the weekend.
An enforcer in the NHL, the Team Canada star knew that dropping the gloves with France’s Pierre Crinon could get him booted from Olympic competition — just as it had with the Frenchman himself.
The two men fought with about seven minutes left to play in the match that Canada won 10-2. Both players were ejected from the game under Olympic rules, but France’s hockey federation took it a step further and suspended Crinon for the rest of the Games.
Wilson, a member of the Washington Capitals, appeared to seek some payback for teammate Nathan MacKinnon taking a hard hit earlier in the game, but it was clear that Crinon wanted to take things to the next level, as Wilson, the NHL’s active leader in penalty minutes, held back to an extent, but not fully.
“It was kind of a dirty hit, and it’s a little bit different in the Olympics, how you have to go about it. I obviously ended up with the same guy who had done it,” Wilson said to the New York Post.
“Hockey is an emotional game. It’s a competitive game. And when you come together with a big guy, you kind of have to make the decision quickly and the gloves came off. Got thrown down to the ice, and then from there, it’s just kind of a bit of a melee. I mean, it’s fight or flight at that point, you’re just kind of figuring out what you have to do. Obviously, the game was kind of out of hand, so it wasn’t a big deal with five minutes left in the game there that I could potentially get thrown out. I just wanted to stick up for our team.”
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France’s hockey federation determined that Crinon’s actions were against its values and announced he’d no longer play for them in the Olympics. France lost its playoff qualifying game, 5-1, to Germany on Tuesday, marking the end of their run on the ice.
“The provocative behavior of Pierre Crinon when he left the ice, even though he had just been excluded from the match for a fight, constitutes a clear violation of the Olympic spirit and also undermines the values of our sport,” the French Ice Hockey Federation (FFHG) said, via Reuters.
“The decision was therefore taken, in full alignment with the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, not to allow his participation in the next match/matches of the Olympic tournament.”
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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