{"id":558272,"date":"2026-04-22T22:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/558272\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T22:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:21:14","slug":"lightning-news-brandon-hagel-details-how-panthers-domination-led-to-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/558272\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning news: Brandon Hagel details how Panthers domination led to changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since losing to the Colorado Avalanche in the 2021-22 Stanley Cup final, the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/nhl-stories\/nhl-news-panthers-lightning-combine-historic-stanley-cup-playoffs-feat-game-4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay Lightning have been<\/a> bounced from the playoffs in the first round three years running. The Toronto Maple Leafs dispatched them in six games to cap off the 2022-23 campaign. Then, their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers, bounced them in each of the last two years en route to consecutive Stanley Cups.<\/p>\n<p>Following a Game 2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in their opening round series, both teams head up north tied at a game apiece. Tampa Bay&#8217;s Brandon Hagel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7218115\/2026\/04\/22\/lightning-win-game-2-canadiens\/?source=emp_shared_article&amp;unlocked_article_code=1.c1A.jwAa.ZyxzmQWhP1_n\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">highlighted the changes made with the franchise<\/a> following their losses the last couple of years to the Athletic&#8217;s Pierre LeBrun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seemed like we were, I don\u2019t want to say scared, but it seemed like we were the smaller guy on the ice,\u201d Hagel stated to LeBrun. \u201cI think we\u2019ve done a good job throughout this season showing that we\u2019re not that team. I\u2019m not saying we\u2019re the toughest team in the league, but I always say that we have 25 guys that\u2019ll leave this rink with a black eye. When you have 25 of those guys in your dressing room, you\u2019re probably in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Games 1 and 2 against the Canadiens went to overtime, the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/tampa-bay-lightning\/lightning-news-brandon-hagel-makes-history-rare-feat-vs-canadiens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lightning&#8217;s resolve helped them rebound<\/a> from Game 1&#8217;s defeat. In capturing the second game, Tampa Bay heads north of the border riding some momentum. This season, the Bolts have been more aggressive on the ice, taking after Florida&#8217;s physical \u2013 and sometimes questionable \u2013 play. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said his team is okay being \u201cthe villain.\u201d Will playing the bad guy lead the Bolts back to Stanley Cup glory? If so, then the changes described by Hagel will have been well worth it.<\/p>\n<p>Since losing to the Colorado Avalanche in the 2021-22 Stanley Cup final, the Tampa Bay Lightning have been bounced from the playoffs in the first round three years running.  The Toronto Maple Leafs dispatched them in six games to cap off the 2022-23 campaign.  Then, their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers, bounced them in each of the last two years en route to consecutive Stanley Cups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since losing to the Colorado Avalanche in the 2021-22 Stanley Cup final, the Tampa Bay Lightning have been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,5,4,63,104,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-558272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-floridapanthers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-panthers","14":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","15":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116450694538922602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558272","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=558272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}