NHL Department of Player Safety Issues Multiple Fines to Panthers and Lightning Players

Despite being the pre-season, the Battle of Florida looked like a Stanley Cup Playoffs game on Saturday night, with two players from that matchup already facing potential suspensions.

The game featured 16 ejections and a total of 312 penalty minutes, and after AJ Greer went at Brandon Hagel in their prior pre-season tilt, it's easy to see why both teams were completely on edge in this one.

While two players face potential suspensions from the NHL's Department of Player Safety, two players have already faced their consequences, with Roman Schmidt the first to get a fine for his actions against Florida's Carter Verhaeghe.

Next up is Gage Goncalves, who was also given the biggest fine possible for his actions against Florida's Evan Rodrigues, with both players clearly feeling the heat of this matchup as they wanted to get involved and make an impact for the Lightning.

While the Panthers came out on top in this matchup, the Lightning weren't afraid to go after them physically following what happened to Brandon Hagel, and as a result, we saw arguably the most chaotic pre-season matchup in the NHL in years.

Now, we have to wait until November 15th for these teams to do battle for the first time in the regular season, and given how intense their last two pre-season encounters were, don't be expect to see more of the same with much more on the line in the regular season.