Brandon Hagel opened up the 2023-24 Tampa Bay Lightning season with an opening night penalty shot conversion in the Lightning’s 5-3 win over Nashville. Tampa Bay has not had a ton of success on penalty shots in recent years which are already rare to be given to begin with. But just how rare was seeing a penalty shot goal from Tampa Bay? This was just the fifth successful attempt under Jon Cooper since he took over the Lightning bench in 2013.
Brandon Hagel snaps one blocker side on the penalty shot ‼️ #NHLFaceOff pic.twitter.com/EIgnvDnACK
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 10, 2023
In addition to Hagel, another penalty shot was granted on Wednesday in Carolina. Jesper Fast was unsuccessful in his attempt but it makes you wonder if the league is going to begin to be more willing to grant penalty shots than they have in the past. The league wants offense and being a little more lenient on penalty shots may be another way to inject some extra excitement into the game.
Let’s look back at the Lightning’s previous five successful shootout attempts prior to Hagel’s on opening night.