Lightning’s Brandon Hagel out for Game 5 against Panthers
One of the important players on the Tampa Bay Lightning roster is going to miss their biggest game of the season.
On Tuesday, head coach Jon Cooper told reporters that forward Brandon Hagel will not play in Game 5 of the team’s Atlantic Division Semifinal against the Florida Panthers. Cooper didn’t specify what exactly is ailing Hagel, but one can suspect it has to do with what happened to the 26-year-old on Monday night.
In the second period of Game 3, Hagel was caught by a high hit from Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad in the Tampa zone. Ekblad clearly catches Hagel in the head with his right arm, sending the Lightning winger falling hard to the ice.
Aaron Ekblad lands a high hit on Brandon Hagel.
Hagel went down the tunnel following the hit and there was no penalty on the play. pic.twitter.com/SIt2nkyP2O
Hagel ended up leaving the game after the hit. The Panthers went on to rally in the third period, winning the game 4-2 and taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
The NHL Department of Player Safety announced Ekblad would have a hearing for elbowing Hagel on Tuesday. The former first-overall pick has never been suspended for an on-ice incident in his NHL career. However, Monday night was just Ekblad’s second game back since returning from a suspension for violating the league’s performing enhancing drug program, which cost him 20 games.
Hagel has already missed one game this series, though not due to injury. The Saskatoon native was out for Game 3 while serving a suspension for interference against Florida captain Aleksander Barkov in the second game of this edition of The Battle of Florida.
With Hagel off the ice, there was some notable line shuffling at Tuesday’s practice. Yanni Gourde moved up to take Hagel’s spot on the left wing of the second line with Anthon Cirelli, with Gage Goncalves moving up to line No. 2, while Darren Raddysh was bumped down to the fourth line.
In the three games he has played in this series, Hagel has yet to score a point, posting a plus/minus of -4 while registering an average of 17:43 of ice time.
Game 5 between the Bolts and Cats is set for Wednesday night, with puck drop from Tampa set for a little after 7:30 p.m. ET.