The way Jimmy Howard started the season, there was belief that he could put the Detroit Red Wings into a playoff position.
He refuses to be drawn into that debate.
“You can’t think like that,” said Howard, who returned to action Friday at Joe Louis Arena in against the Chicago Blackhawks, making 24 saves in a 4-2 win.
Howard had been out of action since suffering a knee injury Dec. 20 at Tampa Bay. At the time, both his goals-against average (1.96) and save percentage (.934) placed him among the NHL leaders.
“Injuries are part of the game, they happen,” Howard said. “It’s just unfortunate. For me it was just remaining positive and trying to heal and get better.”
As he endured setbacks during his recovery process, there was some doubt whether Howard would be back this season, but he remained certain that it would happen for him.
“I tried to remain positive, just worked hard every single day and hoped the knee would get strong enough that I would get a chance to get back out there and play and the day has come,” Howard said.
“It’s huge, you want to play well. I was playing well up until the injury and now it’s time to pick up where I left off.”
Mantha Sits
While Howard was returning, forward Anthony Mantha was given a seat in the press box to ponder his poor play of late.
Mantha made a horrible giveaway on the fifth Boston goal in Wednesday’s 6-1 loss to the Bruins, and then magnified the error by not hustling his way back to his own end to help out on the play.
“My job is to make sure the upward trajectory is there and it’s not going to be a straight line, it’s going to be ups and downs, ups and downs, but the last four games or so it hasn’t been in that same upward trajectory that it was before, so this gives us a chance to hit a reset button and get him back on in the right direction,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill explained as the reason behind Mantha’s forced rest.
“For sure it’s not good news,” Mantha said. “But I just need to work harder, I think. That’s the message he wants to send me. I need to prove him wrong and be better in the next few games.”
Blashill looked upon it as a lesson that all young players must be educated on in order to to become regular NHLers.
“One of the hardest things as a young player to learn is how hard it is every single night,” Blashill said. “When a young player goes through it, it just gives more and more respect to guys like (Henrik) Zetterberg that have done it for so long every single night.
“You have to be on your A game every night in this league. In other leagues you get to a point where you’re just better than people, so even if you’re not on your A game, you still have success. That never happens in this league. Even the very best players have to be on their A game every night in order to really be successful, so it’s just a learning process.”
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