It's probably safe to say James Neal will be haunted by this one for awhile. In a player's worst nightmare scenario, Neal somehow missed a wide open net and instead hit the outside of the post with Coyote netminder Mike Smith taken out of the play.
Neal hits the outside post of an open net pic.twitter.com/rZOJ74WDk3
— Stephanie (@myregularface) December 2, 2015
Smith ended up losing his helmet out of all of it, too, as while he was coming out to get the loose puck, Neal's stick knocked the mask off the netminder's face in their collision. Neal had to steady himself before taking the shot, which is probably what cost him precious seconds, giving him a worse angle to the net.
Neal did get retribution in the end, scoring the Predators' final goal of the evening in a 5-2 victory. On an empty net, of course.