As soon as the Sharks and Avalanche game was complete, ended by the flukiest goal I’ve ever seen in hockey, all mediums of social media exploded. Hockey fans have control of nearly all of them, and immediately Dan Boyle became a trending topic on Twitter in the United States. If you know anything about trending topics on Twitter, then you know how big a deal this was.
And it’s unfortunate that it had to happen to Dan Boyle. This wasn’t Matt Cooke, Chris Pronger or any other player that you love to hate who you can feel bad about seeing this happen to. No, this was one of the classiest and hardest working defenseman in the NHL, a player instrumental to Team Canada’s gold medal win and to the defensive success of the Sharks all season long.
I can’t even imagine what he was feeling or going through. He was reportedly pale and a bit shaken, as would be expected, and says this own-goal was downright shocking. Per Mike Chambers of The Denver Post:
“Honestly I don’t really know what happened,” Boyle said of his inadvertent overtime “shot” that caromed off Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov and into the net for the Avalanche’s shocking 1-0 victory. “It was pretty much the worst thing that could happen to a player, you know?”
After further thought, Boyle came to this conclusion: “I was trying to go hard and around, and I don’t know if it hit a stick or what, but that’s pretty much the worst thing that could happen.”
Whatever the case, it gave is this.