The highest point in Joel Ward‘s career came when he scored a Game 7 overtime goal to upset the Boston Bruins in the first round of the 2012 playoffs.
The lowest point came on Saturday morning when he locked himself in a bathroom stall.
Washington and Dallas are set to face off on Saturday night and the morning started as a regular game day for the 32-year-old Ward. But after a team breakfast at their Dallas hotel, Ward excused himself to the bathroom — little did he know that would become his home for the next hour.
“I tried to come out and I flipped the switch a little bit but it wasn’t really coming undone,” Ward told Katie Carrera of the Washington Post. “I’m in panic mode because I realized the door wasn’t going to open on me. I texted Karl [Alzner] to see if he was still around.”
Asking his teammates for help was probably the worst thing Ward could have done. Instead of rushing to his aid, they turned to Twitter to live-tweet the rescue attempt that John Carlson dubbed “#OperationSaveWardo.”
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Hotel staff eventually showed up, but even they couldn’t get the door open.
“Basically we had the whole Dallas SWAT team come in and still couldn’t open the door,” Ward said.
The six-foot, 220-pound Ward was too big to slide under the door, so a ladder was retrieved to help him climb over the top.
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A heartwarming end to a harrowing tale and a reminder of an important life lesson — always travel with a bathroom buddy.
Photo via Twitter/@JohnCarlson74
