Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad has been suspended for two games by the NHL Department of Player Safety for a “high, forceful elbow” to the head of Tampa Bay Lightning winger Brandon Hagel on Monday night.
With the Panthers leading the first-round playoff series 3-1, Ekblad will miss Game 5 and either Game 6 of this series or the Panthers’ first game next round.
Ekblad had 33 points in 55 games during the regular season, averaging 23:31 in ice time.
Hagel has already been ruled out of Wednesday night’s Game 5 by Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper.
“He’s not playing tomorrow. And you know why,” Cooper said Tuesday.
With less than nine minutes left in the second period of Florida’s 4-2 Game 4 victory, Hagel played the puck out of the Tampa Bay zone near the boards. Ekblad skated in on him, pulled his right arm back and delivered an elbow that clearly contacted the right side of Hagel’s head. Ekblad shoved Hagel down with his forearm, and the Lightning forward’s head bounced off the ice.
Hagel was pulled from the game because of concussion concerns and didn’t return to the bench.
Ekblad wasn’t penalized for the hit and remained in the game. He would play a critical role in the Panthers’ late rally, tying the score in Game 4 with 3:47 left in regulation before Florida defenseman Seth Jones scored the winner 11 seconds later.
Ekblad argued at his Tuesday remote hearing that he didn’t intend to strike Hagel in the head. The NHL ruled that the hit was “a direct blow to an opponent’s head with an extended elbow, delivered with requisite force for supplemental discipline.”
This was Ekblad’s first suspension from the Department of Player Safety in his 11-year NHL career.
Ekblad missed the first two games of this series and the final 18 of the regular season after being suspended without pay in March for violating the league and NHLPA’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
Hagel had just returned to the Lightning lineup in Game 4 after serving a one-game suspension for interference on Florida captain Aleksander Barkov in Game 2. The NHL ruled that Hagel made head contact with him, which forced Barkov out of the game. Barkov returned to the Florida lineup for Game 3, which the Lightning won in Hagel’s absence.
Hagel had 35 goals and 55 assists in 82 games for Tampa Bay in the regular season.
Cooper said the physicality in “The Battle of Florida” shouldn’t come as a surprise.
“Players are missing games because of it, whether it’s physically or by the league. So it’s going to be talked about,” he said. “But if anybody’s followed Tampa and Florida over the last five or six years, this is kind of how these series are. This one is a little different because of the major things that have happened, but these are hard-fought series.”
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