San Jose Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle took it like a man after accidentally scoring an own-goal to end the Sharks' 1-0 Game 3 loss Sunday night to the Colorado Avalanche.
Boyle didn't duck a single question in a post game inquisition from reporters.
"It happened. It's pretty much the worst thing that can happen to a player," Boyle said, in a terribly cringe-worthy locker room interview. "I'm going to need to be strong and get over it."
Boyle's facing the music really showed guts, but Denver is really busting a gut laughing at him.
How bad is the mockery? Woody Paige of the Denver Post published a Boyle-basher of an article Monday declaring, "He will live in notoriety as 'Wrong Way Boyle'."
You may know this Woody Paige of the Denver Post. He's the insufferable loudmouth with the always-unfunny chalkboard scrawlings on ESPN's kids' table of a sports talk show, "Around the Horn".
You want YouTube parodies? These Denver people spend their Sundays at gun control rallies outside Starbucks and clearly have considerable time on their hands.
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This painful-but-amusing clip was cranked out immediately after the game, parodying the NHL's "History Will be Made" ad campaign of highlight moments played in reverse-motion with faux-Coldplay musical stylings and a "What if...?" question appearing on the screen.
ESPN hockey analyst Scott Burnside echoes an unamusing sentiment that has to be in the back of the minds of Sharks fans. "The Sharks are cursed," writes Burnside. "Don't know whether it's a goat or a witch or a stolen puck that's at the heart of it, but there has to be a hex on the Western Conference's No. 1 seed."
Colorado appears so amused over all this that by the time Game 4 rolls around at 7 p.m. PDT Tuesday night, the Avalanche may still be in stitches. And the Sharks will hope to leave them in stitches, but not in the good way.
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who thinks Woody Paige of ESPN's "Around the Horn" does his best work when he's suspended from the show for sexual harassment.
