TAMPA, Fla. — We watched the hit that ended Brandon Hagel’s season. We heard the emotion in the Lightning forward’s voice when he talked about the concussion that resulted from it. We read Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s explanation. We saw Hagel’s hit on Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov. And we listened to Hagel’s acknowledgment that playoff hockey is a different game.

In the postseason, teams go after an opponent’s top players. You want them to hurt or at least let them know they’re not going to go into the corner without taking some punishment. The message-sending in the playoffs is as mental as it is physical.

“Every player thinks the same,” Hagel said on May 2. “It’s not anything different. It hasn’t changed. It’s been going on for years … but I don’t think anyone’s gone out there purposely trying to injure someone.”

But we have watched the Panthers keep going, from the time in the first round when defenseman Niko Mikkola rammed Lightning forward Zemgus Girgensons’ head into the boards, to the moment Florida forward Sam Bennett sent Toronto goaltender Anthony Stolarz to the hospital with a concussion and out of the second round.

Whether you’re a Lightning fan or not, a version of the “Breaking Bad” meme comes to mind: “They can’t keep getting away with this.”

This is on the league. The NHL needs to do more to protect its players, especially when it comes to head injuries.

“I could have played with a broken arm, I could have played with a bad knee, I could have played with a bad foot. You go down the list, but you only have one brain,” Hagel said. “It sucks, because (Ekblad’s suspension) was two games to purposely hurt someone’s head.”

Playoff hockey is one of the best things in professional sports, and here in Tampa Bay we’ve seen the skill, perseverance, luck and toughness needed to hoist the Stanley Cup.

Hagel is the present and future of the Lightning. He’s one of the league’s top two-way forwards and one of its best success stories. He’s someone teammates will run through a wall for, because they know he’ll do it for them. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him eventually wear a “C” on his sweater.

He’s under contract for the next seven seasons with $58.5 million remaining on his deal. At age 26, he’s a 90-point scorer who has yet to tap his full potential. And you know he’ll make every effort to reach that peak.

As long as he stays healthy. Yes, hockey is a tough-guy sport, but concussions are no joke.

Before debating the differences between Hagel’s hit on Barkov and Ekblad’s hit on Hagel, take off those red- or blue-colored glasses.

Hagel’s hit came during a full-speed chase for the puck, and it wasn’t clear whether Barkov had touched it as the puck was rimmed around the corner. It was interference and worthy of the five-minute major — and even the one-game suspension, given the tone of the series — as Hagel initially made contact with Barkov’s body before riding up into the head area.

Ekblad’s shot on Hagel seemingly had one purpose: to deliver a blow to the head. Ekblad said he was aiming for Hagel’s chest, but he had Hagel against the boards and centered him up. The replay showed a cocked-back elbow directed right at the head. Ekblad also stuck his stick between Hagel’s legs before the hit, spearing him with a low blow that would make heel-version John Cena proud.

It’s not the league’s fault that there was no call on the ice, and it’s unfortunate for the Lightning that Ekblad remained in Game 4 for the worst 11 seconds of Tampa Bay’s season. But the NHL had an opportunity to send a message; instead, it gave Ekblad a slap-on-the-wrist, two-game suspension.

Had the NHL done more, would Stolarz have been knocked out of the Toronto-Florida series? That’s tough to answer, but the way that situation was handled in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals was troubling on another level.

The league has neutral spotters who watch for concussion symptoms and can pull a player from a game. That didn’t happen when Stolarz went down to the ice after Bennett’s elbow or earlier in the game when a shot hit Stolarz in the head and knocked his mask off. That leaves the decision in the hands of the athletic trainers, and only after Stolarz vomited during a break in action was he removed.

The league and the players association craft concussion protocols that are updated every year, and players must pass a six-step process and be cleared by a consulting neuropsychologist. While the procedure is detailed, the timeline is vague. It says that generally it should take about 24 hours to complete each step, but a player’s age and injury history can play a role.

The league’s cloak-and-dagger approach to revealing injury details in general — teams only need to give a lower-body or upper-body distinction — hinders the seriousness of head shots. We never found out whether Barkov suffered a concussion against the Lightning, but it seems unlikely since he played two days later. The Leafs have not said whether Stolarz is in concussion protocol.

Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois did reveal during his end-of-season availability on May 2 that Hagel had suffered a concussion. But the Lightning wouldn’t have had to provide that detail if they were still playing.

Players union president Marty Walsh formed an advisory committee last June to better educate players on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) — the degenerative disease caused by repeated hits to the head — and the damage that concussions can do to the brain.

A recent study by Boston University’s CTE Center revealed that the odds of developing CTE is 34% greater by each year of hockey played. The study examined the brains of 77 deceased players, including Hall of Famer Bobby Hull, and found that 18 of the 19 NHL players whose brains were studied had CTE.

No matter what team’s sweater you wear to games, let’s all agree that the league can do more to protect players.

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