In the tough-guy hockey world, a perusal of reactions on TV and in print turned up strikingly few opinions that the hit by New Jersey defenseman Brendan Smith was out of line. Most tended to place more of the responsibility on Bedard for failing to better protect himself as he was skating into the attacking zone.
Perhaps it's simply the nature of hockey that rules changes or other steps to give Bedard and other superstars a better chance of avoiding injury - at least due to hits delivered by opposition players - just aren't possible, or will change the essentials of the game too much.
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