Clayton Keller misses a wide open net and costs his team the game.

This is a brutal mistake and it comes at the worst possible time of the season.

On Saturday the Arizona Coyotes were taking on the New Jersey Devils in a battle between an Arizona Coyotes team that is desperate to make it into the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs and a New Jersey Devils team that was looking to play spoiler. Unfortunately for the Coyotes what was a big chance to leap frog their way into the playoffs would evaporate before their very eyes late in the contest.

The Coyotes and Devils played a full 60 minute game without regulation time being able to determine a winner with both sides tied up at 1 - 1 after the first 3 periods. As a result the Devils and the Coyotes would head to overtime and it looked for a moment like the Coyotes would get the 2 points that they needed out of this game. The Coyotes were awarded a power play in overtime which obviously gave them a massive advantage and it allowed them to set up what looked like it would be a sure goal for Clayton Keller.

Keller found himself just above the crease when a loose puck moved right into striking distance in front of him, and coincidentally he also found himself with the net completely open in front of him. Keller immediately jumped on the loose puck and hit it with the blade of his stick, knocking it directly into the post and somehow missing the wide open net and what would have been the game winning goal for his team. You could hear the utter disbelief from the broadcast crew and Fox Sports perfectly caption the replay by simply asking "How?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

It was a brutal moment for Keller and no doubt one of the worst blunders of the entire 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League season from just about any player, but it is the timing of the mistake that could end up making it a truly haunting one for the Arizona Coyotes as a whole, but especially so for Keller. A win today would have put the Coyotes into the playoff picture 1 point ahead of the Minnesota Wild who will play later today. Now however they are merely tied as a result of the overtime loss they suffered at the hands of the Devils, and that 1 lost point could be extremely costly.

[pub]