{"id":495595,"date":"2026-03-10T00:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/495595\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T00:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:47:17","slug":"nhl-blasted-for-brandon-hagel-punishment-after-sabres-lightning-chaos-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/495595\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Blasted For Brandon Hagel Punishment After Sabres\u2013Lightning Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"Courtesy of NHL\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/50d9ec7d69bd76df0b766cc07125dd45.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of NHL<\/p>\n<p>The NHL is catching serious heat after disciplining Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel &#8230; &#8217;cause a lot of hockey fans think the punishment didn\u2019t go nearly far enough.<\/p>\n<p>The league announced Monday it has fined Hagel $5,000 &#8212; the maximum allowed under the NHL\u2019s collective bargaining agreement &#8212; after determining he was the aggressor in an altercation with Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin during Sunday&#8217;s heated matchup.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, Hagel was not suspended \u2026 a decision that has sparked plenty of outrage online.<\/p>\n<p>Many fans argued the hit &#8212; which came after Dahlin appeared to disengage from the play &#8212; warranted a suspension instead of what amounts to the league\u2019s standard maximum fine.<\/p>\n<p>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><img alt=\"Getty\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/8d679d912237d5caea54691e9ac9ee29.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p>As Dahlin turned and began skating away, Hagel struck him in the back of the head, causing tensions to boil over.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>But the bad blood had started even earlier.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Getty\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/56dbab1c70773fe7ab1a1cc76e8f16e5.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p>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<p>The gloves kept dropping throughout the night &#8230; by the end of the first period alone, officials had already handed out 70 penalty minutes.<\/p>\n<p>When the dust settled, the teams combined for 100 penalty minutes, five fights, 27 penalties and 15 goals &#8212; a stat line the NHL hadn\u2019t seen in a single game since 1994.<\/p>\n<p>Judging by the reaction online, the $5K fine hasn\u2019t exactly cooled tempers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Courtesy of NHL The NHL is catching serious heat after disciplining Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel &#8230;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[397,97,229,191,13596,5,4,4011,1712,92,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-495595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-anthony-cirelli","9":"tag-brandon-hagel","10":"tag-buffalo-sabres","11":"tag-capitals","12":"tag-collective-bargaining-agreement","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-rasmus-dahlin","16":"tag-tage-thompson","17":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","18":"tag-washington","19":"tag-washington-capitals","20":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116202127138138927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495595","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=495595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}