GIF: Panthers F Sean Bergenheim breaks Hurricnaes D Justin Faulk's ankles

When it comes to the business of "hockey highlights" - be it cutting them into a highlight package, or deciding which ones are worth posting on a site, or describing at length in a game recap - it's rare that a producer, blogger or beat-writer selects a near miss to single out. Goals are notable and relatively rare, but a quality opportunity generated creatively? It's just routine if it result in a save.

Except sometimes they're not routine, sometimes they're subtly spectacular. 

On Thursday night, Florida Panthers forward Sean Bergenheim turned a pass that was too-hot-to-handle into a really good scoring chance. Bergenheim took a pass from teammate Dmitry Kulikov in the offensive zone and bobbled it, but the Finnish winger used his momentary lack of control to freeze Hurricanes defender Justin Faulk.

Bergenheim flummoxed Faulk with a lovely inside, outside move before trying to beat Anton Khudobin top corner while falling down. Khudobin was forced to make an excellent save, and proved up to the task because he's secretly really, really good.

Here's the highlight:

[Courtesy Fox Sports]

If Khudobin is a quarter second slower with that blocker, this is a goal of the year candidate. Sometimes a quality play is a quality play, and results be damned.