Holland On Who Will Start In Net Next Season: 'The Competition Starts Again In September'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
DETROIT - Veteran goaltender Jimmy Howard, who spent much of this season and previous ones as the unquestioned starter for the Detroit Red Wings, will have to fight for his job next year.
When Howard, who was elected to the All-Star Game in January, suffered an injury, the young Petr Mrazek took advantage of his opportunity. A competition ensued, with head coach Mike Babcock giving both players chances to grab hold of the starting job, and Babcock chose Mrazek as the winner.
Mrazek played well in the postseason, and now Howard's future is uncertain. He hopes to clear up some of his questions soon.
"That's the whole reason we have exit meetings," Howard said Friday as players cleaned out their lockers. "You get everything out on the table and see what's happening moving forward. We'll definitely discuss then."
Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said the starting goaltender job is up in the air.
"My message to these guys today is pro sports for me is a competition, and the competition starts again in September," Holland said. "And if you think that you didn't finish very good here this year, it's your responsibility to get out in the summer time and prepare yourself to compete, to compete for a job, to compete for ice time, and if you think you finished pretty good, I'd get in the gym and make sure that I continue on where I'm at. We're getting better. We're only going to get better. One of the ways we're going to get better is our players are going to compete against one another, they're going to compete against themselves."
Holland said he cautioned Mrazek, 23, with whom he had met earlier, that he would have to stay sharp if he wanted to replace Howard as the team's number one goaltender.
"Our message [was] ... if you're going to sit on your laurels, we want Jimmy Howard to take the job," Holland said. "We need great goaltending, we need the two of them to compete, starting tomorrow. Maybe they can have a week or 10 days, but by the middle of May, they need to start competing to be ready to come to training camp to battle for ice time. Pro sports is a competition."
Howard refused to blame the groin injury he suffered for his inability to reclaim the job once he returned.
"Everything was going really well prior to that point," Howard said. "We do a job where injuries happen, and you can't use them as an excuse one bit, and I'm not going to use it as an excuse. It's just when you come back and you're healthy you need to perform, and I didn't.
"It's hockey," Howard added. "It's sport. Competition is the name of the game, and when you don't perform, you don't play, simple as that."
Not starting for the Red Wings in their first-round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning the past couple of weeks had Howard experiencing emotions he found difficult to describe.
"It stinks," Howard said. "For a player not even being out there to help them is something that you can't even - you can't even really say how it feels."
Howard spoke highly of Mrazek even as he opened up about how difficult the past season was.
"I don't say it's the most challenging, but it was probably, it's one of the tougher ones," Howard said. "For the first time in my life, in my career, I wasn't the guy that was in the net at the end. It was tough that way, but Petr did an excellent job. He's a great kid, he's going to be a great goalie for a long time, and he's only going to get better, but it was still, personally, it was tough."
Howard finished the season with a record of 23-13-11 and a goals against average of 2.44. Mrazek ended up with a record of 16-9-2 and a goals against average of 2.38.
