This may have been the biggest blunder of Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Sean Walker’s National Hockey League career.
On Saturday night, in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, Walker would do the unthinkable when he knocked the puck into his own net. Even worse however was the timing of the mistake from Walker, timing that may have knocked the wind out of his team’s sails.
The Blunder
The Hurricanes had been pretty fortunate in Game 3 with 2 goals being taken off the board for the Vegas Golden Knights thanks to excellent challenges from Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour, but their luck would run out in a big way.
It should have been a harmless desperation play on the part of Golden Knights forward Mitch Marner who launched a no-look spin-o-rama pass towards the Hurricanes net, but Walker would change all of that. For a brief moment it was as if Walker forgot what team he was on, extending his stick and deflecting the puck clean past Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen for a Stanley Cup Final own-goal.
The Nightmare Timing.
Walker’s blunder would have been bad in it’s own right but the timing of that error was perhaps worst of all.
Just 16 seconds before Walker’s mistake the Golden Knights had registered their first goal of the game, the first one that stood at least, with Walker’s own-goal being the second goal in 16 seconds to give the Golden Knights a commanding 2-0 lead.
Just a few minutes later the Golden Knights would record a third goal, with a bad turnover and a defensive breakdown from the Hurricanes leading to that goal.
Walker’s own-goal may have knocked the wind out of his own team’s sails.
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