{"id":495262,"date":"2026-03-09T20:24:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/495262\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:24:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:24:47","slug":"nhl-blasted-for-brandon-hagel-punishment-after-sabres-lightning-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/495262\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Blasted For Brandon Hagel Punishment After Sabres\u2013Lightning Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lightning-Sabres Scrum
\n Hockey World Rips NHL Punishment
\n … No Suspension For Controversial Fight<\/p>\n

\n Published
\n March 9, 2026
\n 11:40 AM PDT\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"030926<\/p>\n

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The NHL is catching serious heat after disciplining Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel … ’cause a lot of hockey fans think the punishment didn\u2019t go nearly far enough.<\/p>\n

The league announced Monday it has fined Hagel $5,000 — the maximum allowed under the NHL\u2019s collective bargaining agreement — after determining he was the aggressor in an altercation with Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin during Sunday’s heated matchup.<\/p>\n

Waiting for your permission to load the Twitter Tweet.<\/p>\n

Notably, Hagel was not suspended \u2026 a decision that has sparked plenty of outrage online.<\/p>\n

Many fans argued the hit — which came after Dahlin appeared to disengage from the play — warranted a suspension instead of what amounts to the league\u2019s standard maximum fine.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The controversial moment went down early in the second period when Hagel and Dahlin got tangled up in Buffalo\u2019s defensive zone. Dahlin delivered a cross-check during the sequence, prompting Hagel to retaliate.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Rasmus<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

As Dahlin turned and began skating away, Hagel struck him in the back of the head, causing tensions to boil over.<\/p>\n

Officials immediately stepped in and assessed Hagel two minor penalties for roughing, and players from both teams gathered briefly before referees restored order.<\/p>\n

But the bad blood had started even earlier.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Brandon<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Less than five minutes into the game, Hagel and teammate Anthony Cirelli crushed Sabres star Tage Thompson into the boards after the whistle, triggering a massive scrum involving players from both sides.<\/p>\n

The gloves kept dropping throughout the night … by the end of the first period alone, officials had already handed out 70 penalty minutes.<\/p>\n

When the dust settled, the teams combined for 100 penalty minutes, five fights, 27 penalties and 15 goals — a stat line the NHL hadn\u2019t seen in a single game since 1994.<\/p>\n

Judging by the reaction online, the $5K fine hasn\u2019t exactly cooled tempers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lightning-Sabres Scrum Hockey World Rips NHL Punishment … No Suspension For Controversial Fight Published March 9, 2026 11:40…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,40,4,43,86,2620],"class_list":{"0":"post-495262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-sports-news","13":"tag-tmz-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116201094194149010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}