Visitation will be held 9 a.m. -9 p.m. Tuesday at Joe Louis Arena, honoring Howe’s iconic sweater number while allowing fans to pay their respects to Mr. Hockey and the Howe Family, according to the Wings.
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The cause of death was not disclosed.
“Unfortunately, we lost the greatest hockey player ever today, but more importantly, the nicest man I have ever met”, Wayne Gretzky wrote on Twitter of his compatriot and boyhood idol. Son Mark Howe is a scout with the Red Wings, and, like his father, in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
He may have been eclipsed in statistics by Gretzky, a fellow Canadian, but not in grit and longevity.
For all the goals he scored and games he played, he was called “Mr. Hockey” for the way he played the game and not the numbers he accrued. In addition, his Red Wing teams claimed the Stanley Cup four times and won the WHA’s Avco Cup twice with the Houston Aeros. You’re talking, at the time, to the best player ever to play. “His devotion to Colleen through her illness and the fact that he extended his playing days into a fifth decade so he could play with his sons are only two examples of that true priority in his life”.
Playing with pain: Howe needed more than 400 stitches to close cuts, lost several teeth, broke ribs and his nose many times. He converted it into a North American game, former NHL President Clarence Campbell said when Howe retired the first time in 1971 because he was playing with arthritis in his left wrist and for a last-place team. Howe continues to hold National Hockey League records for most games and seasons played.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman also released a statement about the hockey icon.
“Gordie’s toughness as a competitor on the ice was equaled only by his humor and humility away from it”.
Gordie was born in Floral, Saskatchewan, March 31, 1928. He played in an organized league before he was 10 and had a tryout with the NHL’s New York Rangers at 15 but failed to impress.
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Howe suffered a stroke in late October 2014 while at his daughters home in Lubbock, Texas, losing some function on the right side of his body. Still do this day players idolize his physicality, his skill, and his love for the game. Players of his generation will tell you he didn’t do enough to push the envelope of what professionals should be paid, something that frustrated one of his Production Line teammates, Ted Lindsay. He is second on the NHL’s all-time goals list with 801, behind Gretzky with 894, and fourth on the points list with 1,850.
