``There is a rule about blind-side hits, and I think what they are doing is going by how the rule reads. I was there at the game and saw it happen. There was no penalty on it, but there is a rule regarding blindside hits and that's what they are working off of, especially with a player hurt. He did not deliberately hit him in the head, there's no elbow or no forearm. As their coach said, 10 years ago that would have been a clean hit, but now we have to be very concerned about the players' safety regarding concussions.”
``If you are going to give O'Connor a suspension, Reaney has to have a suspension too because he traveled a great distance. It was obvious they were targeting O.C. after the other hit, and then he (Reaney) took off from the far corner across the goal line and nailed him. Everybody in the building knew what the intent was. He hit him full force right into the glass and the boards.
“O.C. has a broken nose and he's kind of a little bit dizzy. He's not 100 percent healthy. If they are going to give him a suspension, they better give it to Reaney, too, or it's going to be open season. The new rules they have come up with to protect the players, if Reaney is not going to get a suspension they are not following the new rules. They are not doing what they said they wanted to do at the start of the year.”
The video of the play shows that O'Connor saw Reaney coming at the last second and turned into the boards so that he was hit from behind.
``Thank God he did because what would have happened if he had not seen him coming?'' Franke said. ``The intent was there to lay him out. He didn't have any way to protect himself and he got blasted.''
