Nicknamed as “Mr. Hockey”, Howe is considered one of the greatest ice hockey players of all time and an ironman in many respects both on and off the ice, Xinhua reported.
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“Sending our thoughts and prayers to the Howe family and to the millions of hockey fans who like me loved Gordie Howe”, Gretzky added. Despite the blood and broken bones, he didn’t miss many games during his NHL-record, 1,767-game career and played in all 80 during his final season. While scoring at that pace, Howe racked up 1,685 penalty minutes – more than fellow Hall of Famers Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Marcel Dionne combined.
The franchise’s all-time leader in games played, goals and points, Howe’s No. 9 was sent to the rafters nearly immediately following his retirement in 1971.
Howe retired after 26 seasons, was inducted to the Hall of Fame, only to return a couple years later to play for the Houston Aeros of the WHA.
Howe was a prolific scorer, leading the National Hockey League in goals scored in five seasons, and finishing in the top five 14 times.
In the late 1990s the now defunct Detroit Vipers of the old International Hockey League signed a 69-year-old Howe to a one-day contract to not only help generate some interest in the team prior to the 1997-98 season, but to also give Howe the opportunity to become the first hockey player to ever play in six different decades. “For all players fortunate enough to play for the Red Wings, we should take time to thank and honor Gordie, for he is a significant reason why Detroit is such a special place to play”.
Howe was married to Colleen Joffa Howe for 55 years until her death in 2009.
“He was a big power forward, one of the biggest players of his time, with as much skill and toughness as anybody who ever played”, Holland said.
Among the marks Howe left on CT is at Quinnipiac University, where he raised money to build the TD Bank Sports Arena.
In 2015, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that a new bridge between Windsor and Detroit would be named the Gordie Howe Bridge.
“He’d say: ‘I’ll try my best, but it’s hard, ‘ ” Cournoyer recalled Friday. “I think that’s the biggest thing I ever achieved”. There wasn’t a job on the ice that Gordie said I’ll leave that for somebody else.
“Our heartfelt condolences on the passing of Gordie Howe, Mr. Hockey”, he wrote on Twitter.
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So the Howe brothers put their father onto a plane, lifting him into his seat on a plane to Mexico. He was 88. Son Murray Howe confi… “There isn’t a bad word I can say about him”, said Bower, a Hall of Famer himself who backstopped the Leafs for 12 seasons and won four Stanley Cups.
