This one, as they say in the business, has to be seen to be believed. But I’ve seen it, and I still don’t believe it. Craig Smith was getting ready to send the Canadiens home in overtime as he received a great pass in the goal mouth, and all that was standing between him and a Predators victory was a wide open net.
Then, disaster struck:
He shot the puck towards the net, but then his own follow through blocked the shot. I had to look at that about five times before I figured it out. It looked like there was a ghost … perhaps a ghost that made its way from the old Montreal Forum, or plexiglass blocking the net. But nope, it was his own stick. If you asked Smith to do that, he’d fail 100 times out of 100. But somehow he double tapped it and blocked his own shot. (And no, he won’t get credit for a blocked shot in the score sheet.) The look on Smith’s face after the fact was one part sadness, and one part bewilderment. I’d feel the same way.
Luckily, Smith won’t be haunted by that crazy play, or by the imaginary ghost that blocked the shot. The Predators still beat Montreal in a shootout 2-1 thanks to a shootout goal he didn’t accidentally block.
