I remember the biggest mistake in my life very clearly.

I was twelve years old and playing midfield for the Sharks, a soccer club team in my hometown of Sarasota, Florida.

We had played very well in the regular season, and even upset one of the top teams in the playoffs to make it to the finals.

During the final game, my team again played well and we had a 2-1 lead going into the final minutes. The refs announced injury time and a Divisional Crown was within our grasp.

That is, of course, until an errant pass of mine ended up on the foot of the other team's star winger. The boy, whose name I cannot bring myself to utter, scored the tying goal seconds later and his team went on to win the championship title in sudden-death overtime.

Suffice it to say, I was heartbroken. I had cost my team the win and had made a mistake when it counted most. Reflecting back upon my taste of infamy, I realized that screwing up in the glare of the spotlight is a common and, at times, tragic aspect of sports.

This thought was reinforced over this past weekend in the Stanley Cup playoffs. There was everything from the disastrously dramatic to the unbelievably absurd.

On Saturday, the St. Louis Blues experienced the former against the San Jose Sharks in the second game of their first round playoff series. Marc Bergevin, a Blues defenseman, caught a centering pass from Sharks defenseman Gary Suter and threw it at his goalie. Unfortunately for the Blues, Bergevin's thrown puck ended up in the back of the net instead of in Roman Turek's glove.