One interesting irony of the Buckner error was that a few months earlier, the 1986 Stanley Cup playoffs featured a memorable error with the Edmonton Oilers’ Steve Smith accidentally putting the puck into his own net. That gave the Calgary Flames the go ahead to beat the very heavily favoured Oilers (with Gretzky and Messier and the rest) in the Smythe Division finals. Calgary ended up facing the Montreal Canadiens in the Finals that year with Montreal winning the Cup in part due to Patrick Roy’s goaltending heroics and the Oilers losing on that unfortunate mistake.
Smith, like Buckner, was that very decent and reliable player you would have always wanted on your team and it is unfortunate they were both known mainly for those regrettable instances. BTW, Smith was the first person Wayne Gretzky gave the Cup to the following year when the Oilers reclaimed it in 1987.
How crazy is it some players are best remembered for errors or unfortunate circumstances.
Ralph Branca perhaps is best remembered for giving up the home run to Bobby Thomson in the playoff game in 1951.
Earnest Byner of the Cleveland Browns, fumbled the ball at a crucial moment in a playoff game, and is often remembered for that unfortunate incident.
It’s funny how these things work out.
I watched that game. What a bonehead play it was, but sometimes these things happen.
That was a crazy play. I think it was Fuhr in goal and he must have been thinking, WTF???