But its not baseball where it is easier to assess responsibilities. Though in the case of Buckner, one can look at their manager who chose to keep Billy Buck in the game instead of his usual pattern of removing this player in late game situations for a stronger defensive replacement. Fact Buckner was playing on one leg made this coaching decision even more head scratching.
You compared Sheahan's situation to Steve Smith in 1986. Except that team, arguably the greatest ever assembled, had about ten minutes to get the goal back and couldn't get it done. Every Oiler to a man from Gretzky and Fuhr on down placed accountability on the team for losing that game. No-one uses a loser mentality to blame it on one player in a team game.
As a game that is played at higher speed than any other and a high degree of chaos, it is shortsighted to narrowcast down to Sheahan's situation as the defining point in an erratic game that featured exceptional number of penalties, erratic play throughout the lineup, and miscues by several players on the actual play itself ending with a garbage goal. The people that coach and play this game at elite levels would never pin that loss last night on a singular play as how you have described it. I get your frustration and we all feel it as this Oilers failed to carry the momentum of game two to last night's critical game. But collectively this team was flat and broke down in every area with exception of penalty kill, of which Sheahan had a role.
