Gordie Howe turns 88 on Thursday and the family of the Detroit Red Wings legend plans on helping "Mr. Hockey" celebrate early by taking him to the Red Wings' game against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday at Joe Louis Arena (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SNE, SNO, SNP).
Howe is scheduled to visit the Red Wings dressing room prior to the game to greet players and the coaching staff.
"We're pretty lucky around here," coach Jeff Blashill told the Red Wings website. "Ted Lindsay was in here last week. To have Gordie Howe come in here means a ton. This organization has unreal history and he's as big a piece of that as anybody. So to have him here tonight will be a great thing. I think it's great for the Howe family that he's able to come here and he's really doing a good job, health-wise."
Howe has made a remarkable recovery after a stroke in 2014 had family members preparing his eulogy. A series of stem cell treatments in Mexico, the last one in June 2015, has given Howe back much of his quality of life; he enjoys taking walks and spending time with family among other activities.
"At this point, he is a man of few words," his son, Murray Howe, told the Detroit Free Press. "He understands what everyone is saying, but he talks in short sentences and usually very quietly. It can be hard to understand him. But he is good with body language and hand signals.
"He is very funny, and if you listen closely, what he says is usually something extremely funny."
Murray, who planned on driving Gordie to the game from their home near Toledo, Ohio, spoke about how his father is still revered in the community and told a story of a recent trip to the local hockey rink where he met a young boy who was named after him.
"You could see it in the little boy's eyes. In his eyes, my dad looked like Paul Bunyan," Murray said. "It was obvious they had told him all about him. The boy couldn't believe he was actually meeting him."
Sabres coach Dan Bylsma, who was behind the bench for some memorable games at Joe Louis Arena during his days with the Pittsburgh Penguins, said it will be special having Howe in the arena Monday.
"I've been in this building a large number of times and I can count every time I know that Gordie Howe was in the building," Bylsma told the Red Wings website. "I know he's going to be here tonight, it's his 88th birthday, I think on Thursday, and we've had five or six guys talk about it in our dressing room that Gordie Howe's going to be here tonight, hoping to see him, hoping to get a picture."
Mark Howe, the Red Wings' director of pro scouting, will also be at the game to celebrate with Gordie.
The Red Wings are in a battle to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a 25th consecutive season. They enter Monday tied in points at 85 with the Philadelphia Flyers, but the Flyers hold the final wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference by virtue of having played one fewer game. The Flyers host the Jets on Monday (7 p.m. ET; TSN3, CSN-PH, NHL.TV).
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