Aaron Ekblad was suspended two games by the NHL Department of Player Safety on Tuesday. His suspension will begin for the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, ESPN2, TVAS2, SN360).
The Panthers defenseman was suspended for his elbow against Lightning forward Brandon Hagel at 11:20 of the second period in Florida’s 4-2 win in Game 4 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Monday. Ekblad was not assessed a penalty for the hit, and he would go on to score the game-tying goal at 16:13 of the third period for the Panthers, who lead the best-of-7 series 3-1.
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said on Tuesday that Hagel, who left Game 4 following the hit, won’t play in Game 5.
“Hitting is part of hockey, you know? Obviously, it gets sensationalized now with what happened yesterday,” Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak said. “They don’t get a penalty for it and it kind of [stinks] because one of the guys for our team didn’t finish the game. It is what it is, you know? You can’t really look into that. We just have to play hockey and right now we just have to look to tomorrow’s game. I think that’s the most important thing right now.”
Hagel had returned to the lineup for Tampa Bay on Monday after he was suspended for Game 3 for a hit on Florida captain Aleksander Barkov in Game 2. He does not have a point in three games in the series after he set NHL career highs in goals (35), assists (55) and points (90) in 82 regular-season games.
“There’s a catchy word called adversity,” Cooper said. “The script doesn’t always go as planned, but as I tell the players, let’s be the ones that write our own story. You take this group and the belief they have, we’ll just step forward and try to write our own story.”
Game 4 was Ekblad’s second game back for Florida after he served a 20-game suspension for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program. He missed the final 18 games of the regular season and first two games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He had 33 points (three goals, 30 assists) in 56 regular-season games.
“Over the last three years, we have had really important players out for big blocks of time,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “The first time it happens, there are even questions from the coaching staff about how to make the right adjustment in your lineup and how that will play out. There is a lot of unknown. Because we have been through it so much, and Aaron has been out, we know how to [spread] out the minutes. If he’s not out of the lineup, we’ll go with what we’ve got.”
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
