Juraj Slafkovsky found out the hard way Tuesday night what happens when a 22-year-old forward challenges Brandon Hagel to a fight.
The gloves came off at Amalie Arena in Game 2 of the Tampa Bay Lightning's series against the Montreal Canadiens. Hagel landed one right hand and the Habs winger went down hard.
Rough learning moment for the young Slovak.
Martin St-Louis has to be wondering what his top-six forward was thinking. Slafkovsky closed the regular season with 30 goals and 73 points at a $7.6 million cap hit. That's the scoring line, not the fighting line.
Dropping the gloves with Hagel makes no sense on a shift sheet. Trading one right hand for your number-one winger being shaken up is the exact kind of deal a coach begs his star not to make.
A Lightning vs Canadiens series that keeps getting more physical by the period
Here's the clip in case you haven't seen the punch land.
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Hagel posted 36 goals and 74 points across 71 games at a $6.5 million cap hit, finishing plus-34. He also spent the whole season playing on the edge of the rulebook. Jon Cooper uses him there on purpose.
This series was already turning into a street fight.
Hagel interfered with Kaiden Guhle on a sequence that put Brayden Point's face in a stick. Cooper called his own group's penalty discipline stupidity after Game 1.
Now this. Vicious hits, gloves-off answers, two locker rooms that have clearly stopped pretending they like each other.
Slafkovsky doesn't need to prove his toughness. He proved his value with 30 regular-season goals and a 15-PPG season on a power play that runs through Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.
The Canadiens need him on the ice, not in the box or in the trainer's room.
Hagel isn't going to apologize. He never has. The Lightning's top forward answered the challenge, dropped the kid, and went to the box with the Tampa bench roaring.
That's the currency Cooper wants in this series. If he gets more shifts like that from Hagel without giving up the corresponding penalty kill, Tampa has a real Game 2 on their hands.
St-Louis has two periods to remind his room what wins this matchup. It's not fighting Brandon Hagel.
Should Juraj Slafkovsky have dropped the gloves with Brandon Hagel?
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