Detroit –
The wait had grown interminably long for Jimmy Howard. And the season was getting late for the Red Wings.
But rather than turning back the clock, the veteran Red Wings goaltender did something more productive.
“We’re always at practice early,” said Jim Bedard, the longtime Rd Wings goaltending coach. “But we started having what we called ‘early’ early.”
That meant “extra” extra work before the entire team took the ice for practice. And then Howard and Bedard would stay after for more drills following practice.
That went on for a few weeks in the dead of winter, until Bedard could see the familiar signs of life in Howard’s game — the soft rebounds off his pads, the instinctive moves, even the slowed heart rate.