PHILADELPHIA — After watching video of his hit on Vancouver rookie Elias Pettersson, Florida defenseman Mike Matheson says he “gets” how bad it looks.

After being deked out by the talented Pettersson on Saturday night, Matheson gave chase until Pettersson got the puck back along the back wall. Matheson came in hard and checked Pettersson into the boards.

Pettersson suffered a concussion either on the initial hit or when he hit the ice after Matheson’s follow-through, a shoulder-slam that planted the rookie onto the ice.

Matheson had never been suspended in his hockey career until Monday when the NHL Department of Player Safety handed down a two-game penalty.

“I have watched the clip numerous times. I definitely understand what they saw and why they thought it was worth two games,” Matheson said Wednesday after sitting out his first game on Tuesday. “The league is really focusing on protecting their players from head injuries, and I’m totally on board with that.

“At the same time, it wasn’t my intent. I have never been a malicious player or someone who goes around trying to hurt players because I expect the same respect in return. That’s what hockey is about. It’s two-fold; I can see the point of view where people are saying it was malicious and I was deserving of a suspension, but I know what I was feeling and what I was thinking and it wasn’t that.”

Matheson wasn’t suspended for finishing his check. The league said Matheson was guilty of interference and unsportsmanlike conduct in continuing after the puck was gone.

“It’s obviously an unfortunate sequence of events,” Matheson said. “The first thing I thought of after the game was whether he was OK. That was my main concern and still is. It sounds like he is doing better, and that’s great to hear.

“As a player, you don’t go around trying to injure people. That’s not part of my game no matter what happens. Hopefully he’s back in the lineup soon.”

Matheson said he wasn’t seeking any retribution nor was he trying to knock Pettersson out of the game. Matheson said he and Pettersson traded text messages the next day.

“I apologized,” Matheson said.

Pettersson, Matheson said, answered back.

“He didn’t have to, but I appreciate the fact that he did.”

Although Matheson understands how everything looks, he doesn’t get how someone could be so angry as to post the poison now coursing through his social-media accounts.

Matheson says he has received death threats and had people wishing he would contract a deadly disease.

Even his dog, a miniature goldendoodle named Hank, was not immune from the abuse.

In the hours following the hit on Pettersson, Vancouver fans and those upset with the hit went searching for Matheson’s social pages.

Some found a cute pic of the little pup on Instagram.

“You don’t deserve this animal,” one commented. “You monster!”

Another (sic): “Hope your dog dies bitch.”

There were more posts along those lines, plenty of them filled with obscenities.

When asked Wednesday whether he had been paying attention to those comments, Matheson’s expression completely changed.

It was obvious he had.

“I’m trying to stay off it, but it has been very, very disappointing,” Matheson said. “To think that people could be so inhumane about something … sports were made to bring people together, to cheer on teams and have passion about their teams. I fully understand and respect that.

“But there are thousands of people commenting things on my social-media pages — sending me death threats, wishing I would commit suicide or get cancer — that’s bringing things to a whole new level. People have even threatened my dog. If you’re going that far, you might want to look yourself in the mirror. I’m not going to engage in it. It’s definitely not worth it. I know not all Vancouver fans are like that. I’m sure it’s a very small percentage of hockey fans who are doing this.”

The Panthers have given plenty of support to Matheson over the past few days and have defended his use of physicality against a much lighter opponent.

General manager Dale Tallon, who drafted Matheson with the 23rd overall pick in 2012, has sent young players like Jonathan Huberdeau and, most recently, Henrik Borgstrom down to the minors because he didn’t feel they were physically ready for the NHL and didn’t want them getting injured in the course of play.

Pettersson may, however, be the best player the rebuilding Canucks have, with five goals in his first five NHL games. The fifth-overall pick in last year’s draft, Pettersson is said to be out at least a week with the concussion.

Tallon joined Matheson on his conference call with the league on Monday.

“Matheson was making a hockey play,” Tallon said. “You hate to see a good, young player like that get hurt. But our guy was playing defense in his zone. That’s it.”

Matheson is no stranger to physicality, but this is the first suspension of his hockey career. (Ron Chenoy / USA TODAY Sports)

The Panthers may not agree with the two-game suspension, but based on how much it was talked about on social media, they weren’t surprised by the verdict.

The debate on what would happen with Matheson began shortly after the hit happened. Some argued he should get a fine; some said he should be out as long as Pettersson is.

All the Panthers know is that they’ll be without Matheson until Detroit comes to Sunrise on Saturday night.

“We have spoken about his play but didn’t really address the hit. I just left it as what it is,” coach Bob Boughner said. “He had his hearing and the suspension was handed down, and there’s not much we can do about it. I don’t think it came out of frustration or anything like that. Mike was trying to play a skilled player hard; that’s what we ask every night.”

Huberdeau dropped

It was no secret that Boughner wasn’t happy with the play of his second line on Tuesday. He’s been frustrated with it for much of the young season.

On Wednesday, Huberdeau found himself wearing a light-blue practice jersey at the Penn Ice Rink, indicating that he was now working with the fourth line.

Huberdeau scored 27 goals with 69 points last season and has a goal with an assist in four games this year.

Linemates Vincent Trocheck and Mike Hoffman have both scored once, with Hoffman’s goal being a late correction from the league off a power-play chance.

With Huberdeau on the fourth line, Troy Brouwer was moved up to the second on Wednesday.

“We’re just looking to switch that line up a little bit,” Boughner said. “Things are always different when you have a few days between games, so we’ll see how things go tomorrow. We’ll talk about it again. That line is very talented, but we need them to work hard for chances. It cannot just be one-and-done. Right now, they’re a victim of that a little bit.”

Colton Sceviour was the healthy scratch off the fourth line on Tuesday.

Hoffman gets his goal

Hoffman was credited with his first goal of the season (and his first since joining the Panthers) Wednesday, a day after his shot from 10 feet out appeared to strike the stick of Philadelphia defenseman Ivan Provorov on its way to the net.

The goal had originally been awarded to Aleksander Barkov — who was jockeying for position with Provorov at the doorstep.

Florida trailed Philadelphia 5-2 late in the second before scoring that goal, which ended up sparking a comeback that earned the Panthers a point in the standings despite a 6-5 shootout loss.

“It was nice we accounted for a power-play goal because we hadn’t scored leading up to that,” said Hoffman, whose team had started the season 0-for-14 with the man advantage.

“Special teams are a big part of a team these days, and that goal seemed to give us a little momentum, brought us back onto our feet and we were able to rally from a pretty deep deficit.”

Defense ‘leaking oil’

Michael Hutchinson may have given up five goals in his debut in net for the Panthers on Tuesday, but few are blaming him for the shootout loss.

In the five-goal second by the Flyers, there were numerous defensive breakdowns in front of the netminder.

“There were some goals where he didn’t have a lot of help on, for sure,” Boughner said. “He made some big saves at times. At the end of the day, we have to be better in front of our goaltenders, and the onus is on them, too. They need to be better, we need to be better as a whole defensively.

“Our game is starting to leak a little oil. We’re getting beat more off the rush than anything, and that’s a concern.”

(Top photo: Stan Szeto / USA TODAY Sports)