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The Wings remember Mr. Hockey |
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Icon. Friend. Teammate. Hero. Idol.
When the Detroit Red Wings of both yesterday and today talk about Gordie Howe, there is an air of reverence, and yet at the same time, there is also warmth in their voice as they recall how the man called known as Mr. Hockey carried himself without any of the airs of superstardom.
“In the hockey world, obviously he was Mr. Hockey, everybody knew,” former Wings forward Kirk Maltby said. “It wasn’t that he was a pop icon. It didn’t matter if you were the youngest guy in the dressing room or the oldest. Everybody knew who Gordie was. When he came in, it’s like he wanted to say hi to everyone.
“He didn’t just go straight over to talk to Steve Yzerman or Nick Lidstrom. He talked to anybody and everybody who was in the dressing room. He was not biased.
“You hear a lot of stories, whether it’s a superstar athlete or celebrity or something like that, they kind of blow people off. Gordie had no bias to anybody and seemed to enjoy meeting and talking to everyone that was there.”
Kris Draper still fondly recalls the first time he got to meet Howe in the Wings dressing room.
“It was my first year,” Draper recalled. “I was one of the newer Red Wings, he came up and we just started talking. It was so easy to talk to him and you just realize, ‘Wow, I just met Gordie Howe. Mr. Hockey.’
“And I remember going home and calling my dad and saying ‘I just met Gordie, shook his hand and talked to him’ and I remember saying ‘What a huge thrill.’
“That’s just the luxury you have sitting in that dressing room, playing for an Original Six team and playing for the Detroit Red Wings.”
Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman got to coach Howe in Detroit in the 1980 NHL All-Star Game at Joe Louis Arena.
“I was coaching that game because I coached the Stanley Cup team (Montreal) the year before and I chose Gordie as the Hartford Whaler representative,” Bowman recalled. “He always thanked me for that gesture. It was an easy call, going back to Detroit.
“I remember the game like it was yesterday. He got an assist on the winning goal – I got a little bit of criticism for putting him on the team. He was turning 52 in March and he ended up getting an assist on the winning goal by Real Cloutier.”
“He played for the Hartford Whalers and scored 15 goals in 1979-80. It’s amazing.”
Bowman counts himself lucky that he got to grow up watching Howe perform for the Red Wings in his prime.
“I was one of the fortunate people,” Bowman said. “I was just a teenager and I watched the Red Wings come into Montreal between 1948 and 1955, when they were in their prime. They won seven straight first place finishes and four Cups.
“He and Rocket Richard were the two players in that era that stood alone as far as the most outstanding players all around.”
Hall of Famer Red Kelly knew Howe as a teammate in Detroit and as an opponent after he was dealt to Toronto in 1960 and much preferred the former.
“I met my wife (Andra) because of Gordie,” Kelly said. “If it wasn’t for Gordie, I wouldn’t have met her. The ice show was in town (with 1948 Olympic champion) Barbara Ann Scott, and they had the write up in the paper about Gordie almost being engaged to Barbara Ann and he’d never met her.
“He found out she was going to be down at the dining place on Grand River below Olympia, so he’d thought he go down there and meet her. He wanted Lindsay to go with him and Ted couldn’t go, he asked Marty (Pavelich) and he couldn’t go, so he asked me. I said no at first and then I said, ‘Oh I’ll go with you Gordie.’
“We went down and when we got there, she wasn’t there. The people at the restaurant told us there was another star (of the ice show) there with her mother and brother and would you like to meet them? Gordie said ‘Sure’ so we went around and it was Andra McLaughlin and her mother and her brother.
“She’d seen the write-ups and Barbara Ann had seen the write-ups and she told Andra, ‘You’re a hockey fan. You go see Gordie and find out what he’s like and tell me.’ She was very fascinated with Gordie and really I just sat there and listened. I didn’t say much. But that’s how I met my wife and eight years later we eloped and got married.
“I wouldn’t have had the chance of meeting her without Gordie.”
Kelly recalled the night in Montreal when Howe and Richard, the greatest players of that era, dropped the gloves and went at it.
“Gordie and the Rocket, they never played against each other very often,” Kelly said. “They didn’t get on the ice against each other because we always had a checking line against the Richard line and they always had a checking line against the Howe line.
“When they did get together a couple of times, they raised their elbows on each other, went down the ice to the other corner and raised the elbows again and they had a fight. We circled them. “(Referee King) Clancy came in and said, ‘Let ‘em go, let ‘em go.’ I guess he was interested to see what was going to happen, too.
“Anyway, they hit each with a couple of blows and Rocket slipped and fell down to the ice. Instead of coming up on the inside (of the circle), he came up on the outside. Bootnose (Sid) Abel, who was standing right there, he said, ‘Finally met your match Rocket?’ and boom the Rocket nailed Abel and broke his nose.”
Kelly felt a different kind of boom the first time he faced Howe on the other team.
“I get traded and I eventually end up in Toronto,” Kelly said. “The first game we’re playing against Detroit and against Howe after 12 ½ years, he’s got his arm around me with his stick around me and the puck’s in the corner. We’re going to be the first ones there, so I figure I’m just going to freeze the puck there with my feet.
“Gordie leans right into my ear and says, ‘How’s the wife?’ And I sort of turn to respond, and he almost puts me through the boards. My footprints are still there.”
Howe’s footprints are all over the game. Even in death, he will remain larger than life, but he’ll always be remembered as someone who was famous, but never forget what it was like to be an everyday person.
“He was incredibly respectful,” recalled Detroit GM Ken Holland, who played briefly with Howe on the Whalers. “He was humble. He was kind. He made you feel warm and welcome. He was an incredible ambassador, an incredible human being. If you’re on the team you were part of the team.
“On the ice his elbows are legendary. Off the ice his humbleness was legendary. He was a fierce, fierce competitor on the ice and off the ice he was gentle, he was caring, a great father. Obviously the relationship with his children his entire life speaks to the man, the father.
“When I was with Hartford I was playing in Binghamton, I got called up, I was a teammate and a couple years later after he retired I was playing with (Gordie’s son) Marty (Howe). He’d come down to Binghamton 2-3-4 times a year for 2-3 days, he’d walk into the locker room, he’d joke with everybody. We were in awe. Gordie was probably mid-50s then and still strong and powerful and looked like he could still play.
“Knowing what his accomplishments were, the greatest hockey player who ever lived, and he was in the locker room in the American Hockey League and he’s making us all feel like we’re all on a level … we’re all even. He was humble, kind, giving, caring. Just an incredible human being.”
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