Phil Kessel falls flat on his face and gives up a brutal goal.

Mistakes are going to happen in life, you simply have to shake them off and move on as best as you can hopefully learning something in the process. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh Penguins star forward Phil Kessel though I do not think that this will serve as one of those all important learning experiences. 

On Saturday night the Penguins forward made a massive blunder while his Penguins were facing off against one of the team's nipping at their heels in the Eastern Conference in the form of the Columbus Blue Jackets. This game had a playoff like atmosphere from the very beginning with the Blue Jackets in desperate need of a win just to stay in the hunt for a spot in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs while the Penguins on the other hand could very much have used the 2 points to help secure the spot that they tentatively hold in the NHL's playoffs at this moment.

Unfortunately for the Penguins however it was all Blue Jackets early on, at least as far as the scoreboard is concerned. The Blue Jackets jumped out to an early 1 - 0 lead in the first period and it was only after a few minutes after the second frame had gotten under way that Kessel had his big blunder. The Penguins were on the power play and were trying to set up a zone entry from their own end of the ice with Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz leading the charge. 

Schultz would cross over his own blue line before deciding to drop the puck back to teammate Phil Kessel who was waiting at that very same blue line, a relatively innocuous looking play. Kessel however would not only fail to handle the pass correctly, he would actually lose his balance and fall flat on his face, all the while somehow also managing to perfectly place the puck on the stick of Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson. This created what can only be described as a very strange short handed breakaway from Atkinson on the penalty kill and he made the most of his unexpected opportunity putting the Blue Jackets up 2 - 0 over the Penguins.

Definitely one moment that Kessel is gonna want to erase from his memory asap. 

[pub]