Mark Giordano Nearly Injures Connor Bedard After Scary Play: What was he thinking?

Late in the first period of this afternoon's game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Toronto Maple Leafs, defenseman Mark Giordano stepped up and tried to hit rookie Connor Bedard. However, Giordano was unable to catch Bedard in time and delivered a knee-on-knee hit, one of the most dangerous plays in hockey.

At the time of the play, the game was 1-1 but the Blackhawks managed to come back from a 3-1 deficit later on with three unanswered goals, two of which came from Jason Dickinson who has a hat trick, to win 4-3 in overtime.

While Bedard and Giordano were both able to walk away from this hit just fine, many other times a knee-on-knee hit results in a lengthy injury. Just earlier this season, Blackhawks veteran and Connor Bedard's mentor, Taylor Hall, took a knee-on-knee hit that has knocked him out for the season.

Knee-on-knee hits have also taken out many other star NHL players. Back in 2013, Team Canada captain Eric Staal took a knee-on-knee hit from Swedish defenseman Alex Edler which knocked him out long-term.

Before this incident Staal had one of his best seasons with 53 points in 48 games but after he never scored at a point-per-game rate again.

Thankfully Bedard was able to get away unscathed as this could have been one of the most memorable plays in NHL history for all of the wrong reasons.