FORT LAUDERDALE — The Lightning were perplexed by the news Sunday that Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk won’t receive supplemental discipline from the NHL for his hit on Jake Guentzel in Game 3 of their opening-round playoff series.

But they quickly chalked it up as just another hurdle to overcome in trying to unseat the defending Stanley Cup champions.

The Lightning could continue to ask themselves the difference between Tkachuk’s hit in Saturday’s 5-1 win over Florida and the one two nights earlier that led to Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel serving a one-game suspension, but it would do them no good.

“You accept their decision and move on and trust that the right one is being made, because they’re not cheering for anybody,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “They’re cheering for the game to be played properly.”

The NHL’s department of player safety concluded that Tkachuk’s hit did not warrant a hearing. The league doesn’t publicly address decisions in which a player does not receive supplemental discipline, but in its eyes the two hits clearly were different.

The league determined that both players showed the premeditation to warrant the five-minute major penalties they received on the ice. In Tkachuk’s case, he changed his skating line and hit Guentzel from his blindside after Guentzel had passed the puck to Anthony Cirelli to set up an empty-net goal.

One difference was that Tkachuk’s hit came with less force than Hagel’s and made no contact with Guentzel’s head (though Guentzel’s head did hit the ice afterward). Another difference, in the league’s eyes, was that Guentzel had touched the puck on the play, whereas Florida’s Aleksander Barkov had not before being hit by Hagel.

Matthew Tkachuk has been given a 5-minute major for this hit on Jake Guentzel before Tampa’s ENG pic.twitter.com/gDHny5h8z2

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 26, 2025

Lightning captain Victor Hedman argued that the timing of Tkachuk’s hit, with the Lightning well ahead in the game and only five minutes remaining, mattered.

“We’re up 4-1 and about to make it 5-1, and (Tkachuk) goes out of his way to hit (Guentzel), but it is what it is,” Hedman said. “We can’t control what the league thinks is interference that’s suspendable and not suspendable.

“So, we’re just gonna fight through that. (Guentzel) got up right away and went out the next shift. So, that goes to show once again what Guentz is all about. To take a hit to that play, obviously not expecting to get into that, but we’re happy he got up right away, and it showed that he’s a gamer.”

All in all, cooler heads prevailed on the off day before the Lightning, trailing two games to one, attempt to even the series Monday in Sunrise. Cooper said that those who determine supplemental discipline have a difficult and thankless job.

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“I don’t know if there’s a harder job in sports than what they have, to regulate the speed and the physicality of what goes on in these games,” Cooper said. “Maybe football, but football the plays aren’t as rapid as they are in hockey.

“I think it’s a no-win situation for them, because one fan base is going to be upset about one decision and the other fan base is going to be upset because the decision wasn’t strong enough. Unfortunately, it’s kind of like being a referee. They’re the only people in the building that nobody likes, nobody cheers for.”

The Lightning’s Mitchell Chaffee (41), Victor Hedman (77) and Conor Geekie (14), and the Panthers’ Niko Mikkola (77) look on a officials try to break up a skirmish during the third period of Game 3 Saturday in Sunrise. [ RHONA WISE | AP ]

The intensity should continue to ramp up as the series progresses, and the Lightning must match the Panthers’ physicality without ending up in the penalty box. Even though Tampa Bay has fewer penalties in the series (18-15) there were instances in Game 3 where players were lulled into scrums that led to them being pulled into the penalty box.

“(Game 3) was a good example,” Hedman said. “They’re picking one out of every scrum, and we’ve just got to make sure that we’re on the right end of it. … You’re fighting for every inch, and that’s what playoff hockey is all about. … It’s a part of the game. You try to stay as cool as you can and not take penalties. But in the heat of the moment, sometimes the emotions get the better of you.”

The Panthers clearly have tried to get Nikita Kucherov off his game by being physical with the Lightning star, and his teammates won’t hesitate to protect him. But Cirelli was called for roughing while trying to defend Kucherov after the second-period horn in Game 3. Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola took a swipe at Kucherov after Kucherov shouldered Seth Jones. Cirelli went to Kucherov’s aid by engaging Mikkola then went after Sam Reinhart when he moved toward Kucherov.

“You’ve got to kind of keep your cool,” Cirelli said. “In that case, it’s tough. There’s the emotions of the game and different aspects of what might be a penalty and what might not be appealing.

“But, you know, the refs, like Heddy said, they’re taking one (player to the penalty box), so I think it’s kind of on us to just kind of walk away. Maybe you have to eat a punch, eat a cross check, eat a slash and just kind of get out of there and let them do all of the extra-curriculars, and we just kind of try and play in to the whistles.”

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