On Learning from Mistakes

A few days ago I praised Jimmy Howard for identifying mistakes that he made in the Vancouver game and how he gave specific examples of what he should have done differently.

Howard called out the first Canucks goal as one he shouldn’t have allowed, as he’s well aware of the lively boards at Joe Louis Arena and can’t allow the puck to go back there only to spring back out front and give the opposition a scoring chance.

Unfortunately, he could say the same thing about the New Jersey Devils’ first goal on Tuesday, as Kyle Palmeiri threw the puck off the end boards, then raced in to pick it up as it bounced back in front of the net, beating Howard for a power play goal.

There were defensive breakdowns all around for the Red Wings in that game, and lots of people deserve a lot of blame. I’m calling out Howard here, though, because he specifically noted that he can’t make that mistake again and then went and did it in the next period of hockey he got to play. You can’t say you’ve learned your lesson and then go make the same mistake.