Lightning top-six winger Brandon Hagel has been ruled out for Wednesday’s Game 5 matchup against the Panthers as he remains in suspected concussion protocol, head coach Jon Cooper said (per the team).
Tampa Bay now faces elimination without its second-leading point getter from the regular season. Even if they manage a win at home to stay alive in the series, there’s no timeline yet for Hagel’s return.
“He’s not playing tomorrow, and you know why,” Cooper said (per the team’s Benjamin Pierce). The reason Cooper’s referring to is a high hit from Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad midway through the second period of last night’s Game 4 loss that earned him a hearing with the Department of Player Safety today. Ekblad will presumably miss Game 5 as well, if not longer, due to his pending suspension.
“There’s that catchy word called adversity, so the script doesn’t always go as planned,” Cooper said (via Pierce). “But I tell the players, let’s be the ones that write our own story.” The Lightning are trying to avoid their third straight first-round exit after making three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals from 2020 to 2022. Last year’s defeat also came at the hands of the eventual champion Panthers in five games.
Hagel, who erupted for a career-high 35 goals and 90 points in the regular season while playing in all 82 games, has only been available for two and a half games of this series. He was suspended for Game 3 after delivering an illegal hit to Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov in Game 2 and was limited to 11 minutes of ice time in Game 4 before the Ekblad hit. He’s been held without a point, only managing three shots on goal and a minus-four rating.
Nick Paul hopped up to Hagel’s spot on Anthony Cirelli’s wing in Game 3 when Hagel was unavailable. It’s unclear if he’ll do so again. Cooper has opted to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the majority of the series, with the Hagel and Cirelli duo routinely going without a consistent winger as a result.
Karma to a POS.
Karma? Barkov wasn’t injured moron. Just shaken up as he played the next game, perfectly fine. The drug addict Ekblad went head hunting which shows he’s a pathetic scumbag which fits on a POS team. But the Florida fanbase also showed they’re a classless POS fanbase to cheer an injury which is morbid. What a disgusting display.
@Feel the teardrops
Hagel isn’t really hurt. He is being sat down because of non performance (0 points in the series). Just another greaseball move by the Lightning.
Just because he knocked out your boy Kachick at 4 nations doesn’t mean you have to get all emotional. Remember when Hagel ragged dolled a guy 20lbs bigger then him down to the ice..that is when he tore his groin….
Ekblad the cheater…will sit the rest of the series. Could not even put a shoulder into his chest or shoulder. Had to elbow him in the face/head. Talk about a POS.
Kachick???? You are a POS speller
It is a pronoun
It’s unfortunate about Hagel as I hate seeing players get injured especially from cheap, lowball hits from a POS team.
But I will say Tampa played like crap in the 3rd period of game 4. They came out flat, with absolutely no urgency at all and they fiddled with the puck too much which created bad puck management on all accounts. They lost game 4 themselves as they gave away the game to Florida. Tampa lost the game more so then Florida won the game. Now, they’re down 3-1 & it’s their own doing. They are lacking that killer instinct mentality.
Agree. My concern with this team as a fan is the up and down play. All year, this has been their main issue. When they stay engaged, they are as good as anyone, but they seem to let the foot off the pedal and make huge errors too often.
While i get the lock it down mindset, the NHL is far different today then even 5 years ago. You have to keep pushing to score.
And while I love this team, I am confounded how even after winning draws, they can not control the puck and get out of the zone on a regular basis. On the tying goal, they won the draw back to the wall and Florida touched the puck first. This just can not happen.
While Florida is up 3 1, I still do not feel the series is over. The lighting need to throw more pucks towards the goal and muck it up a bit. The PP needs to put the puck on the goal line and drive it out towards the net. That will create some chaos around the goal front.
Mikola is let off scott free for targeting a guys head on the dasher. That is pathetic.
Yes, you hit some valid points. I will say Tampa does not stay on the gas pedal when they have a lead a lot of times. They get too comfortable & play lock down mode. But they have a tendency to become disengaged as well which is when bad things happen for them.
If Tampa would play a full 60 minutes like they did in game 3, Tampa wins this series hands down. Florida doesn’t have many high end skill set guys compared to Tampa. Tampa has the most dangerous offense in the league (even Paul Maurice said it himself) but it only shows up when they’re fully engaged & play the full 60 minutes.
One thing Tampa needs is more sandpaper players in their forward group. They are missing that Pat Maroon, Corey Perry, Tanner Jeannot type players. Guys who will bring the fight. They have a lot of high end skill players but few sandpaper players like they had during their Cup runs. That is something Julian BriseBois needs to fix this offseason.
The Panthers outplayed them except for 11 seconds in the second.
I agree that your team is sofffft.