Juraj Slafkovsky learned a tough lesson on Tuesday night when he decided to fight Brandon Hagel, a player who is 22 years old.
The fight happened at Amalie Arena during Game 2 of the playoff series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens. Hagel landed a big punch, and Slafkovsky went down hard.
This was a tough moment for the young player from Slovakia.
Martin St-Louis must be confused about what Slafkovsky was thinking. Slafkovsky ended the regular season with 30 goals and 73 points, costing the team $7.6 million on the salary cap. He is known for scoring, not fighting.
It doesn’t make sense for him to fight Hagel at all. Swapping one punch for getting your top winger hurt is exactly the kind of mistake a coach hopes his best players won’t make.
The series between the Lightning and Canadiens is getting more physical with each period.
Hagel scored 36 goals and had 74 points in 71 games, with a cap hit of $6.5 million, finishing with a plus-34. He played all season while pushing the limits of the rules. Jon Cooper puts him in that role on purpose.
This series was already becoming really aggressive.
Hagel got involved with Kaiden Guhle in a play that caused Brayden Point to get hit in the face with a stick. After Game 1, Cooper criticized his team’s lack of discipline in taking penalties.
And now this. There are hard hits, fights breaking out, and both teams have clearly stopped pretending to like each other.
Slafkovsky doesn’t need to show how tough he is. He has already shown his worth by scoring 30 goals during the regular season, including 15 goals on the power play where Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield shine.
The Canadiens need him to be playing on the ice, not sitting in the penalty box or resting in the trainer’s room.
Hagel is not going to say sorry. He has never done that. The best player on the Lightning took on the challenge, took the kid down, and went to the penalty box while the Tampa bench cheered loudly.
This is what Cooper is looking for in this series. If Hagel keeps playing like that without causing a penalty for his team, Tampa could really do well in Game 2.
St-Louis has two periods to show his team what it takes to win this matchup. It’s not about fighting Brandon Hagel.
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