The severity of Jimmy Howard’s lower-body injury hasn’t been revealed, but he’ll be out for at least the next seven days.
On Wednesday, the Wings placed Howard on seven-day IR, recalling AHL netminder Jared Coreau from Grand Rapids in the process. Howard’s designation comes just hours after he was knocked out of Detroit’s 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday night -- he was helped off the ice early in the second period, after being crashed into by Nick Jensen and Tampa Bay’s Erik Condra.
Prior to getting hurt, Howard had stopped 15 of 16 shots for a .938 save percentage.
Petr Mrazek allowed three goals on 15 shots, and was tagged with the loss.
If there’s a silver lining to this situation, it’s that Howard may not miss that much actual game time. Detroit plays just once more before the holiday break -- on Friday, against Florida -- before getting back into action next Tuesday against the Sabres.
The Wings can ill afford to lose Howard for any length of time. Though his record leaves something to be desired -- he’s just 5-7-1 on the season -- he has posted both a sparkling save percentage (.934) and GAA (1.96).