“It’s just hockey”.. a phrase that was thrown around regularly during the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last season. Saturday night we saw the ‘Battle of Florida’ serve up a total of 312 penalty minutes, 16 ejections, and 65 total penalties. It started when AHL regular, Scott Sabourin found Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad three minutes in, knocking him to the ice, then following up with multiple punches. Sabourin was the first player to get tossed, and that’s when the game started to boil over. But to understand Saturday, you have to go back to Thursday night’s preseason game, when midway through the first period, Panthers forward A.J. Greer cross-checked Lightning forward Brandon Hagel, then appeared to high-stick and sucker punch him multiple times in the head [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/tampa-bay-lightning/latest-news/a-j-greer-fined-for-roughing-brandon-hagel-in-panthers-lightning-preseason-game]. It was clear Hagel wasn’t expecting that kind of hit in a preseason game, especially against a team they’d faced just two days earlier. Greer received a 10-minute misconduct penalty on the play, and Hagel exited the game with an undisclosed injury. Hagel was not a participant in practice on Friday and Greer was fined $2,213.54. Hagel has been a fixation for the Panthers since last April, when he received a one-game suspension for an illegal hit to the head on Aleksander Barkov in Game 2 [https://share.google/Q1T6Yyhj9UKywbUzj] of the first-round. Barkov did not miss a game after the hit. When Hagel returned from his suspension in Game 4, his postseason quickly ended after Ekblad delivered a direct hit to Hagel's head that caused him to have a concussion. There was no penalty on the play, and because of that, Ekblad remained in the game and went on to score, with Florida winning 4-2 and taking a 3-1 series lead. The next day, he was suspended for two games as the NHL Department of Player Safety determined the hit was done “with requisite force for supplemental discipline.” [https://www.nhl.com/video/ekblad-suspended-2-games-6372080865112] Ekblad had just returned from a 20-game suspension [https://www.nhl.com/news/florida-panthers-aaron-ekblad-suspended-for-20-games] for violating the league’s performing enhancing drug program prior to the start of the playoffs. The hit on Hagel raised several questions — from player safety to officiating accountability. The series between the two teams featured several borderline hits by Florida, some of which were either missed or inconsistently penalized. "The most frustrating part to me is, I think hockey is the best sport in the entire world, the way it's played and the honesty and the respect for a lot of the players, it's as competitive as it gets on the ice,” Hagel said at the end of the season. “You have those unwritten rules in hockey. I would have answered the bell.” The constant head shots and questionable hits took away from what the game was supposed to be about in the playoffs. It wasn’t just Ekblad. Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola was given a misconduct [https://share.google/GBZwDGjP5f7IoqWOK] for curb stomping Lightning forward Zemgus Girgensons’ head into the boards while he was down on his knees. Mikkola was later fined, but faced no further discipline. In Game 3, Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk skated in from Jake Guentzel’s blind side [https://share.google/EWb0QVZ40dxtdX5ul], staring him down and delivering a hard open-ice hit that leveled him. The incident occurred moments after Guentzel passed the puck, resulting in a five-minute major penalty for interference on Tkachuk. According to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, the NHL Department of Player Safety believed the hit carried less force than Brandon Hagel’s on Aleksander Barkov in Game 2 — a hit that earned Hagel a one-game suspension. As a result, Tkachuk faced no further discipline or accountability. In Saturday’s preseason game, the Lightning finally pushed back. With players like Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay is built on skill. They’ll fight when they have to, but they don’t seek it out. But when the hits keep coming, when players like Hagel are getting drilled in the head, what are the Lightning supposed to do? Just turn the other cheek? Thursday night’s target on Hagel made it clear the Panthers were ready to do it again. At some point, you flip the script. “I think anybody that’s been a part of this rivalry would probably look at this box score and A) probably not be surprised and B) be like, ‘I can’t believe it’s taken this long for something like that to happen.’ So, it’s two extremely proud franchises, and they always play with their heart on their sleeves,” said Jon Cooper. The Lightning will open the regular season at home against the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 9 at 7 p.m.
