Major penalty assessed to Brandon Hagel overturned in Game 3.

There is going to be a ton of disagreement around this call in Game 3 between the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning, and that much was evident just on the National Hockey League's own broadcast of the game.

In the opening period of Game 3, Lightning forward Brandon Hagel was assessed a major penalty for a crosscheck that he delivered to the back of Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen. The crosscheck was delivered as Luostarinen was making a play on the puck near the boards and also as he was already seemingly struggling to maintain his balance, a combination of factors that sent the Panthers forward into the boards with considerable force.

While the slow motion replay of this one looks bad, it's only when watching it in real time that you get a good sense of just how bad of a collision this was for Luostarinen. Here is a replay of the crosscheck in both slow motion and in real time:

In something of a controversial moment though, the NHL officials on the ice would later reverse their decision after reviewing the video evidence, cutting Hagel's penalty down to just a 2 minute minor. It created an interesting dynamic on the NHL broadcast given that every member of the broadcast, even including officiating specialist Don Koharski, had expressed their belief that the initial call of a 5 minute major had been the correct decision.

One thing is certain and that is the fact that this was an extremely dangerous play, one that appears to have knocked Eetu Luostarinen right out of the game. After going head first into the boards Luostarinen was very slow to get up but when he did eventually regain his feet he would head straight to the Florida Panthers' locker room, either for repairs or for medical assistance.

Although the call on the ice was overturned there is still the prospect that Hagel could face additional discipline from the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety, although we likely won't have any indication of that until after Game 3 has concluded.