Keith Ballard's Highlight Video…Wrong

No matter what Keith Ballard accomplishes during his NHL career he will always be remembered for his careless actions on November 30 when he swung his stick in frustration and accidently took out his own goaltender.  This 27 year-old who is in his second year playing with the Florida Panthers suffered a temporary brain lock on Monday in their game against the Atlanta Thrashers. During the first period after Thrashers superstar and captain Ilya Kovalchuk scored Ballard showed his disgust by violently swinging his stick at the goalpost. This thoughtless act ended up to have severe consequences as he accidently nailed his own goalie Tomas Vokoun in the ehad area with his stick. Showing what kind of person he is Vokoun who has a sparkling 2.82 GAA and a .919 save percentage harboured no hard feelings towards Ballard who spoke and apologized to his the goalie and teammates on the flight back home from Atlanta. A day after this bizarre incident which left Vokoun with a bloody ear and needing stitches the NHL and team concluded that no disciplinary will be taken against Ballard. “Supplemental discipline is assessed for actions that are taken against opponents—meaning Ballard would have possibly been fined or suspended had he lashed out in anger and accidently struck a member of the Thrashers,” NHL spokesman Frank Brown said. “But it wasn’t an opponent.” This ugly incident which was referred to by ESPN’S hockey analysis Barry Melrose as “the stupidest thing I’ve seen in my life” was compared to another strange scenario that occurred in 1979 which left New York Rangers goalie John Davidson injured. At that time Rangers defenceman Dave Maloney accidently hit Davidson in the leg with his stick which resulted in the big goalie being sidelined for a few games. According to Panthers coach Pete DeBoer Ballard who was not available to the press afterwards was badly shaken. “It was a heat of the moment play,” the coach said. “It’s not how you want to handle your frustrations. I’m sure Keith Ballard will never do it again.” All turned out well as Vokoun who had to be carried out on a stretcher is in good spirits and is listed as day to day. Still Ballard will always be known for the guy who committed the cardinal sin of showing his anger by slamming his stick and accidently injuring his own player.