Inconsistency, controversial hits and players running wild in NHL’s Battle of Florida

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The Battle of Florida is, well, a battle.

Sure, this series isn’t as physical or grinding as Jets versus Blues in the Central, which has a combined 347 hits. But the hits thrown in this series have been a lot more controversial.

Monday night’s Game 4 showcased that — first when Aaron Ekblad ended Brandon Hagel’s night with a forearm to the head in the second period, then in the third when Niko Mikkola boarded Zemgus Girgensons.

The Panthers and Lightning are heated rivals, so a physical series should be expected — that is the nature of the Stanley Cup playoffs, after all. But there still has to be a standard of consistency for these borderline infractions, and after Game 4, that line is even blurrier.

To set the stage for Monday night’s spicy game, let’s rewind to Game 2.

Midway through the third period, penalty killer Aleksander Barkov pressured Ryan McDonagh for the puck. Barkov was going for the puck but did not actually touch it. Hagel still lined him up for a hit. A five-minute major was called on the ice for interference; after review, the call stood.

According to Rule 56.4, an interference minor can be upgraded to a major “based on the degree of violence.” Hagel was not assessed a game misconduct, even though Rule 56.5 says that a game misconduct will be imposed when an injury results from the play.

Barkov left the game after the collision and was a game-time decision for Game 3 (which he ultimately played). Hagel, on the other hand, was not available for that game due to suspension.

There is no question that this was an interference penalty. And there was a case for upgrading it to a major penalty due to the force of the hit and the head contact. But was it suspension-worthy in a playoff environment?

Maybe this made up for the fact that Hagel was not assessed a game misconduct. Maybe the idea was to settle things before anything got out of hand. Maybe the NHL’s Department of Player Safety was setting a standard for players to abide by in this series.

Game 3 proved otherwise.

Trailing 4-1, the Panthers pulled Sergei Bobrovsky for a six-on-five attack. With about five minutes left in regulation, Jake Guentzel moved the puck to set up Nikita Kucherov for the empty net goal. Matthew Tkachuk lined up Guentzel for a hit after the puck left his possession.

Again, the call on the ice was an interference major, with no corresponding game misconduct. But this time, the department of player safety did not issue supplemental discipline.

Guentzel, unlike Barkov, actually touched the puck. But the hit was still late. Tkachuk made contact after Guentzel moved the puck to Kucherov, and he had a second to change course (or ease up), instead of aiming right for a collision. That’s why head coach Jon Cooper recited Paul Maurice’s postgame line from Game 2: “the only players we hit are the ones that have pucks.”

The differences in force and the fact that the head was not the primary contact played into the department of player safety decision not to suspend the Panthers winger. Tkachuk walked the line enough to send a message to the Lightning, without leaving his team short-handed in Game 4. And in any other playoff series, that likely would have been enough. But that ignores the context of Game 2 with Hagel.

Yes, there were differences between Hagel and Tkachuk’s interference penalties: the puck touch, force and head contact. However, the timing and intention behind Tkachuk’s infraction could have been enough for the department of player safety to suspend him and maintain the standard set after Game 2.

Instead, it set up a contentious Game 4, with Tkachuk and a returning Hagel in the lineup. It didn’t take long for trouble to brew.

With 8:40 left in the second period, Ekblad hammered Hagel in the face. Call it a forearm shiver or an elbow, the fact remains: that is not a legal play.

After the initial collision, Hagel’s head hit the ice. He did not return to the game, and there was no update on his status postgame. And yet, nothing was called on the play.

Even if one of four officials did not catch it in the moment, the fallout was apparent: Hagel down on the ice, injured after some sort of contact. There is a mechanism to ensure that borderline plays are assessed — referees can err on the side of caution and call a major penalty in the moment to review the play. Sometimes that happens when a player is injured on the ice, and there is uncertainty around what happened.

But the context of this series once again matters. The play involved Hagel, who charged up animosity in this series with a dangerous enough hit on the Panthers captain to warrant a major penalty and a suspension. That alone should have raised a red flag.

The game could have gotten out of hand here if the Lightning decided to take matters into their own hands. Instead, Tampa Bay responded with two quick goals at even strength to pull ahead 2-1.

But just because the game didn’t explode in that moment doesn’t mean that the lack of penalty calling doesn’t matter. It directly impacted the outcome of the game, with Ekblad, who did not receive a minor, major, or a game misconduct, scoring the tying goal in the third period.

And it further blurred the line between what is and isn’t acceptable in this series, which could cause a ripple effect moving forward if players feel more emboldened to toe the line between physical and dirty, since there is no standard.

Just fast forward to the third period when Mikkola boarded Girgensons.

Girgensens lost his footing after contact from Mikkola. Mikkola finished his check and hit him in a vulnerable position when he was trying to get back up. That warranted a major penalty and the first game misconduct of the series. He may not face supplemental discipline since he missed most of the third period.

Ekblad should, though, since he wasn’t tossed from the game like his teammate. If not, it condones players crossing the line and policing the game themselves. Unlike Tkachuk or Hagel’s inference penalties, this wasn’t a borderline play; It was a clear penalty that was missed in the moment and after the moment when it could have been reviewed. How this situation is handled could set the tone for Game 5, especially if past trends hold, and the whistles go away later in the series.

Controversial hits have overshadowed the last four games and become the story in the Battle of Florida.

“It’s getting tiresome answering questions about a hit every game,” Cooper said postgame. “I’ll ask you. Why are you asking me the question?”

The only question worth asking is one that Cooper can’t answer: What is the standard of consistency in this series?

(Photo: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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