Brad Marchand nearly involved in skate blade accident with Bunting

Since the tragedy that happened earlier this year, there has been a heightened awareness of skate blades and close calls when they could cause serious accidents. One close call happened last night when Michael Bunting was tripped by Brad Marchand, and his skate blade came up, nearly hitting Marchand in the neck area.

Take a look at the video.

Some are alleging that Bunting may have done this on purpose, which is crazy. It's one thing to suggest he is being careless with his blade, but a whole other thing to say that he was being reckless on purpose. When the video is slowed down, its easy to place blame, but in reality at that speed that is a serious allegation to lay on a player.

Either way, Marchand was able to score a short-handed goal which sucked the life out of the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins.

This brings up the question again if players should be required to wear neckguards and other cut-proof protective equipment. At the minimum, the NHL should be discussing this again this summer.