Outside Bell Centre on Tuesday night, fans chanted "Bettman sucks" and signed petitions urging the NHL to take stronger action against hits to the head during a boisterous protest that CBC News estimated was about 200 fans strong.
Inside Bell Centre on Tuesday night, the player whose injuries inspired that outrage was meeting with his Montreal Canadiens teammates for the first time since leaving the hospital.
Max Pacioretty, who broke his neck and suffered a concussion on a controversial hit by Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara last week, announced on Twitter that he'd visit the Habs before their game against the Washington Capitals. According to the Canadian Press, he arrived with good news:
Pacioretty told his teammates that he was ahead of schedule in his recovery and that he hasn't been experiencing any concussion symptoms.
"The fracture in his neck has to heal but he doesn't have concussion symptoms and that's the key part," said defenceman James Wisniewski. "We've seen guys miss a significant part of time this year with headaches and stuff like that so for him to get out here and come to a game it's important and really meant a lot."
Terrific news, even if that inspiration didn't carry over into victory for the Habs, who lost to the Capitals, 4-2.
Habs Talk Radio has a collection of postgame videos featuring talk of Pacioretty's visit. We wrote about the origins of the fan protest earlier on Tuesday.