The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted heartfelt comments made by Jeff Blashill and Danny DeKeyser regarding one Jimmy Howard, who retired today…
“When I was an assistant here he was an All-Star, and then he was an All-Star again later in his career,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “It shows the competitiveness, and also the work ethic that showed in being great at his craft. Goaltending is one of those positions that you can continuously work on and make better, and he continually did that.
“When you look at his career in totality, it was a really, really wonderful career. He was a great competitor and a really great Red Wing.”
Howard ranks fourth in his draft class with 246 victories in 543 games, trailing Marc-Andre Fleury (467 in 848), Jaroslav Halak (272 in 521) and Corey Crawford (260 in 488).
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“He was a great goalie for us for a long time,” veteran defenseman Danny DeKeyser said. “He gave us a chance to win more nights than not. He loved playing hockey, loved competing. One thing that I think made him a good goalie was his ability to block out things that happened in the past – if he had a bad game, he could rinse it and go out the next night and have a good game.
“Another quality of his was not things too seriously all the time and being able to go out there and have fun, joke about things, even if they weren’t going the right way. He liked to have fun.”
MLive’s Ansar Khan followed suit…
“I’d like to congratulate Jimmy Howard on an awesome career,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said Thursday following the team’s morning skate in Dallas. “Jimmy was a great teammate, a great Red Wing. He had a great, great career and certainly want to wish him luck as he enters the next phase of his life.”
Red Wings defenseman and longtime teammate Danny DeKeyser said Howard had a high compete level.
“He gave us a chance to win on more nights than not,” DeKesyer said. “He loved competing, that’s one thing that really stood out to me. It just seemed like he always tried to do things the right way.”
Howard also demonstrated resilience.
“If he gave up a bad goal or had a bad game he could rinse it out of his head and go out there the next night and play hard and give us a chance to win,” DeKeyser said. “As a goalie you have to be able to do that because not every night is going to go your way.”
Update: Here’s a bit more from the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:
Defenseman Danny DeKeyser played with Howard throughout both players’ careers and appreciated Howard’s competitiveness.
“He loved competing; that’s one thing that really stood out to me,” DeKeyser said. “It just seemed like he always tried to do things the right way, and he gave us a chance to win on more nights than not.
“If he gave up a bad goal or had a bad game he could get it out of his head and go out there the next night and play hard and give us a chance to win. As a goalie you have to be able to do that because not every night is going to go your way.”
Howard had a 246-196-70 record with a 2.62 goals-against average, .912 save percentage and 24 shutouts in 543 games. Howard ranks third all-time in franchise history in games and victories (behind Terry Sawchuk and Chris Osgood) and is fourth in shutouts.
Howard was a 2003 second-round pick of the Wings and made his debut in 2005. He went on to win 246 games for Detroit, plus 21 more in the playoffs. He was an All-Star in 2012 and 2019, and was named to the 2015 All-Star Game, also, but suffered a groin injury the same night he was named to the ASG squad.
“Awesome career,” Blashill said. “Jimmy was a great teammate, a great Red Wing. He had a great, great career and certainly want to wish him luck as he enters the next phase of his life.”
