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Out of the NHL, Denmark’s Frans Nielsen landed exactly where he wanted to be: On Olympic ice

February 9, 2022 at 2:53 p.m. EST
Denmark's Frans Nielsen scores on a penalty shot Wednesday. (Bruce Bennett/AP)
5 min

BEIJING — As soon as Denmark was awarded a penalty shot Wednesday night, in the country’s first-ever Olympic men’s hockey game, there was no question who was going to take it. Out came 37-year-old Frans Nielsen, the first player born and trained in his home country to reach the NHL, now with another chance to do something no Danish player had ever done.

Nielsen barreled toward the net and, after a deke, backhanded the puck over the Czech Republic’s goaltender for what turned into the game-winning score. “This is for sure up there,” he said after Denmark’s 2-1 victory, his teammates still shouting with pure Olympic joy on their walk back to the dressing room. It was still hard for Nielsen to fathom how this night had fallen into place.

Just six months ago, after 15 years in the NHL, his contract was bought out by the Detroit Red Wings. He decided he would play one more year of professional hockey, but he didn’t land with an NHL team before the start of the season. He signed to play in Germany instead, and that exile later came with an ironic twist — had Nielsen remained in the NHL, he would not be here in Beijing.

In December, the NHL opted to keep its players out of the Olympics because of coronavirus-related schedule concerns. While the absence of the league’s stars has taken some of the luster off the tournament — there’s no Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid — there are plenty of players like Nielsen who have been elbowed out of the NHL and, as a result, still have a chance to compete.

“This is a childhood dream. It all worked out for the best,” he said.

It has been a momentous week for the sport in his country: Nielsen and his teammates watched as Denmark’s women’s team, which is also making its first Olympic appearance, beat the Czech Republic. They followed suit in a bruising contest Wednesday.

Afterward, Danish players spoke as much about the win as they did about the legacy of Nielsen, as if the two were intertwined. In a country with only a few thousand participants in the sport, Nielsen inspired a generation of NHL players after he broke through in the league in 2007, which started a career that spanned more than 900 games with the New York Islanders and the Red Wings.

“We’re a small country that doesn’t have that many participants in hockey,” forward Mikkel Boedker said. “He’s huge. He’s meant everything for the whole hockey of Denmark. First guy to be in the NHL, kind of paved the way for other guys, and now he gets to score in the Olympics.”

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As Nielsen established himself in the NHL, Denmark cultivated and produced a handful of NHL players — Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers, Columbus Blue Jackets forward Oliver Bjorkstrand and Washington Capitals center Lars Eller among them — but the country’s national team, which joined the International Ice Hockey Federation in 1946, fell short of qualifying for the Olympics cycle after cycle. It finally broke through by qualifying for Beijing in August, the same month that slammed the door shut on Nielsen’s NHL career, with a 2-0 upset of Norway.

“Just being here, being a part of the Olympics … this is a big deal for me and for everyone on that team,” Nielsen said. “We missed it so many times in a row, and I knew this would be my last chance.”

The absence of NHL players could still be felt Wednesday inside a largely empty National Indoor Stadium. The teams rolled out blended rosters of college prospects, European league mainstays and NHL washouts. It has created parity for this tournament — the Russian Olympic Committee, which opened with a win over Switzerland on Wednesday, is favored to defend the gold medal it won during the NHL-less PyeongChang Games in 2018 — but players can feel the difference in not having the world’s best players here.

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“When you’re out there playing, you don’t think about it, but obviously it would’ve created a buzz and it would have been a way different atmosphere having all the biggest superstars in the world in our sport here,” said Boedker, who logged more than a decade in the NHL and now plays in Switzerland. “But at the same time … it’s a privilege for us, it’s a privilege to be here. They couldn’t make it, so other guys get the opportunity to play. That’s one thing the Olympics can do: It’s for everybody.”

Nielsen was one of the country’s flag bearers during the Opening Ceremonies, and he could only hope that fans in Denmark would be watching as he prepared to take his penalty shot at the end of the first period. Only two players in NHL history have more shootout goals than Nielsen, who over the years has been known for his signature backhand in those situations. He knew he would go to it again Wednesday night.

As soon as the Czech Republic’s goaltender dropped a pad, it was clear it was the right move again. Nielsen flipped the puck in to give his team a 2-0 lead, and Denmark held off a late push by the Czech Republic, which is considered a medal contender. A little over an hour after Nielsen’s goal, his teammates mobbed him on the ice as they celebrated their win. On a night in which the NHL and Olympic hockey could not coexist, there was no place Nielsen would rather be.

“I’ve thought about that a lot, when I saw the NHL didn’t go. . . . You always want to be in the NHL, but at the same time, it’s my last year of playing,” he said. “It would’ve been tough to miss this.”

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