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Jimmy Howard Finally Arrives
by Paul on 09/07/09 at 08:19 AM ET
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from Chris McKosky of the Detroit News,
“There are people out there who think (Howard) is a washout,” Wings general manager Ken Holland said. “But I like to bring goalies along slowly because I know how important that position is. I don’t want to go through growing pains with a 23-year-old. I am trying to avoid putting players in the NHL and have them learn how to play pro hockey while we’re losing.”
Holland feels Howard’s apprenticeship is over, as do general managers throughout the league. Holland said he had to deflect a lot of interest in Howard at last year’s trade deadline.
“I just had to keep working hard,” said Howard, who says he never felt the organization bailed on him. “I never had a bad meeting with Ken. It was always positive, so I knew in the back of my mind that I’d be up here one day. Now the door is open and I have to walk right through.”
Filed in: NHL Teams, Detroit Red Wings | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Jimmy+Howard,
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Howard is going to have a tough road to win over the fans and certain bloggers that think he’s a bust after his nine whole games of NHL play and “inconsistent” AHL play.
Of course nobody will talk about how his (admittedly brief) NHL numbers are very close to Conklin’s, or that he got most of his playing time with Detroit Red Griffins mass call up of a few years ago for injuries. Hell fans will selectively forget that he was an AHL all star two years ago while touting that Larsson was one last year, and will stoutly forget he played with some bad Griffin teams, and that his numbers have never dipped below decent.
Wings fans want a Mason, or Roy to come out of nowhere and that’s just not how the organization does it.
I think they screwed over Howard last year when they told him he had a shot to earn the backup job, and had great camp just to be sent down because they were never going to demote Conklin. Then again who knows, maybe that was part of Hollands master plan to piss off and super motivate Howard.
All I know is I’ll be rooting for the guy and hope he turns to actually be the goalie of the future he was thought to be when he was drafted.
Posted by moocat on 09/07/09 at 04:31 PM ET