The Sunshine State Showdown between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL wouldn’t be called the Battle of Florida if the two teams didn’t have a taste for blood when they hit the ice. However, one home-team player went over the line with a vicious boarding penalty. While getting the win was all that mattered to the Panthers in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs First Round, the NHL stepped in and handed a hefty fine to a key player on Matthew Tkachuk and Brad Marchand’s team.
Both Florida and Tampa Bay paid homage to their mascot names, scoring in quick bursts, with each team netting two goals in 11 seconds at different stages of Game 4. Tampa struck like lightning, sending shivers down the Cats’ spine, but the Panthers ultimately pounced on their prey, corralling them to take a 3–1 series lead.
The Battle of Florida has become one of the most vicious rivalries in the NHL—if not the most vicious. The two Sunshine State franchises have faced off in four of the last five Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the winner reaching the Stanley Cup Final each time.
As entertaining as it is, the action on the ice has recently turned into a bloodbath, with the stakes rising in every game. Controversies are snowballing, and just when it seems things have reached a boiling point, the next game pushes the intensity even further.
Paying the price
Game 4 had no shortage of electric, yet tense, moments. While the spotlight is usually on Marchand and Tkachuk to stir the pot, they didn’t cross the line in the fourth game of the series, instead it was defenseman Niko Mikkola, who received a major penalty and a game-misconduct for a boarding penalty on Zemgus Girgensons. However, that wasn’t the end of it, as the NHL’s Department of Player Safety has now stepped in.
“Florida’s Niko Mikkola has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for boarding Tampa Bay’s Zemgus Girgensons,” the NHL Player Safety official account on X stated.
Ekblad expected to face suspension
Aaron Ekblad wasted no time making his presence felt, after missing the first couple of games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs due to a 20-game suspension for violating the NHL and NHL Players’ Association’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
Midway through the second period, Ekblad steamrolled Brandon Hagel, in a clear message of revenge after the latter’s hit on captain Aleksander Barkov in Game 2. However, Ekblad’s hit wasn’t any less reckless than Hagel’s, the Panthers’ blueliner elbowed the Lightning’s forward in the chin, and causing him to miss the rest of the game due to a possible concussion. Moreover, Jon Cooper announced Hagel won’t play in Game 5.
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The hit wasn’t called by the officials on the ice, but the NHL’s Department of Player Safety has scheduled a hearing with Ekblad, who is expected to receive a suspension.