Everyone Affiliated With The Florida Panthers Needs To Soul-Search After Reacting To Hit On Aleksander Barkov

Hockey is a violent sport, with dudes slamming themselves into other players on the regular. That intensity only picks up in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, when legacies are on the line.

A series between heated rivals means there will be a lot of hard hits. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers, who have combined to win three of the past five Stanley Cups, qualify as rivals. When these two sides cross paths, things get heated in a hurry and some questionable hits take place.

In Game 2 on Thursday night, Lightning forward Bradon Hagel saw Panthers forward and captain Aleksander Barkov heading towards the corner. He lined him up and hit him high, causing Barkov to fall on the ice. The Panthers captain would leave the ice, not return, and now is questionable for tomorrow's Game 3.

Hagel was called for a 5-minute major.

I read the rules on what body checks are allowed, and it seems like Hagel crossed the threshold for an illegal hit, but barely. Hagel left his skates (barely), and Barkov didn’t have the puck, that's what’s illegal. However, he did hit him in the shoulder, so aside from the fact that he slightly left his skates, this isn’t the most egregious hit ever.

But countless NHL fans are saying Hagel should be tried and executed for this play. Not seriously, but they are mad.

Look, I get it. Panthers fans, players, and even the coach are peeved that this happened to their captain. Paul Maurice, the head coach, said he coaches his players to only hit dudes with the puck.

But frankly, all of this anger from the Panthers is unjustified given how they’ve played in years past.

They are a team of scumbags. The whole team’s strategy is to push the boundaries on physical play. Florida isn’t dirty with all its hits, but that team isn't perfectly clean either. Matthew Tkachuk’s best attribute is that he pisses people off. 

Oh, and then there is Sam Bennet, who knows a thing or two about laying dirty hits on opposing team’s captains. This is him last year on then Bruins captain Brad Marchand.

Sucker-punching an opponent without the puck? Seems dirty to me. Bennet also didn't even get a slap on the wrist for that, and the Panthers and their fans were awfully quiet about it.

If the Panthers want to give a lot of questionable physicality, they need to be able to take some too. If they can’t, maybe they should actually learn how to not rely on dirty physicality to win games, and their fans should not complain when they get a taste of their own medicine.