Photo credit: Mike Segar/Reuters via Imagn Images
UPDATE (Feb 15, 1:41 PM ET): Elliotte Friedman announced that both Tom Wilson and Pierre Crinon will not receive further punishment for their fight during Team Canada vs. Team France on Sunday afternoon.
Crinon is free to play for France as they try to qualify in the play-off rounds meanwhile Wilson is able to steer clear and gets a chance to play in the quarterfinals.
Team Canada forward Tom Wilson dropped the gloves against Team France’s Pierre Crinon on Sunday which will no doubt lead to some further discipline down the line.
In a game you wouldn’t expect to be too testy given that it’s just Team Canada and Team France in a preliminary game, you would think that the red, white and blue of the French uniform was masquerading as the stars and the stripes of the American side.
In a scrappy affair there were lots of hits, we actually saw something quite rare involving Tom Wilson — a fight.
Tom Wilson gets in a fight to no one’s surprise but it may cost him
Wilson and French player Pierre Crinon started exchanging words which led to some light shoves then both players seemingly getting tired of the Olympic restrictions, dropped the gloves and started a melee:
Wilson getting in Crinon’s face had to do with a slightly controversial hit on Nathan MacKinnon earlier in the period.
However, this might not draw some further discipline at least according to Elliotte Friedman, as the IIHF would need to determine if Wilson instigated or exactly how the situation went down:
It’s a game that had a bunch of wild stories coming out of it. Canada won 10-2, but had nine different goal scorers, including one from Macklin Celebrini (the only multi-goal scorer) on a rare penalty shot:
It’s a great sign for Team Canada that Wilson might not receive an automatic suspension, and it was more or less a grappling contest between the two but the rules are clear and both men had to go.
While the IIHF works under different rules, this is not new territory for Wilson, who often gets a ton of criticism for his less than favorable style of play that has come with a fair amount of suspensions and fines.
We will need to wait and see if the IIHF decides to come down on Wilson, and very well may do so just based off their stringent sportsmanship guidelines.
But this has already shown to be a wild men’s ice hockey portion and it could get even crazier if one of Canada’s top players has to miss the quarterfinals.
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Tom Wilson breaks an Olympic rule, and the ruling is now official
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