Hockey broadcast prematurely called Blue Jays World Series win before Dodgers stunner

The Toronto Blue Jays were so close to capturing their first World Series title in 32 years on Saturday – that is, until the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers came roaring back in an 11-inning Game 7 thriller to win their second consecutive title.

The entire country of Canada was locked in on Game 7 of the World Series – even the home crowd at Rogers Place for Saturday night's NHL matchup between the Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks. The baseball game was being shown, with sound, on the Rogers Place scoreboard during breaks in play, which was certainly a first for players like Oilers star forward Connor McDavid.

“It was bizarre,” McDavid said (via Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Journal). “I found myself watching the Jays game sitting on the bench, and then listening to the crowd (cheer for another game) while I was on the ice. I was like, ‘What just happened?’ It was very strange.”

The cheers, of course, came when fans had been fooled into thinking that the Blue Jays had won the Series on a run scored by Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the bottom of the ninth inning – who, as we now know, was actually ruled out at the plate after failing to take a longer lead from third.

Sportsnet NHL broadcast mistakenly declares Blue Jays World Series champions during Edmonton Oilers game

Based on the crowd's reaction, the announcers broadcasting the Oilers game on Sportsnet got a little ahead of themselves and mistakenly declared the Blue Jays World Series champions – so anyone who was watching the hockey game at home may have temporarily been fooled into thinking that baseball's biggest trophy was headed back to Canada.

“The Blue Jays have just won the World Series!” Oilers announcer Jack Michaels said on the broadcast, pausing for a moment before correcting himself. “Or no! They’re calling him out at home!”

In Michaels' defense, he and the fans in Edmonton were far from the only ones who reacted in such a way to the bang-bang play at the plate. In that moment, it really did appear as if the Blue Jays had just won the World Series.

Of course, that was not the case. And, after watching their team lose to the Florida Panthers in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals and fail to end Canada's long championship droughts, Oilers fans clearly felt the Blue Jays' pain.