Much as Howard did, Mrazek got to work in the offseason to rebuild his game and become even better.
This season with Howard as the primary starter, Mrazek has maintained the habits he established in the offseason and it is paying dividends now.
Wings coach Jeff Blashill, a former goaltender himself, saw it in the 3-1 victory over the Nashville Predators Saturday night.
"He made a big save last night in the third on a one-timer in the slot," Blashill said. "The first rebound got away from him but I thought the save was unreal in the sense that his feet were set, he had made a little shuffle over, his feet were set and then he just leaned into the puck, he didn't have to reach for it because he had taken that little stutter-step with his feet. That's a change in his game that he's worked on over the course of the year so that's a little goaltending thing that you wouldn't necessarily notice but when I saw that, I was excited. It just said that he's continuing to get better."
After starting only three out of 16 games from Dec. 11-Jan. 20, Mrazek has played in eight of the last 12, including seven starts.
Mrazek is now 8-6-3 with a 2.88 goals-against average and .909 save percentage.
Howard is 16-18-6 with a 2.83 goals-against average and .910 save percentage.
"I think confidence is a huge thing for any player, certainly goalies it's exacerbated," Blashill said. "I think when he's on his game, when you're confident you look bigger in the net for whatever reason, you play a little bit bigger. I think his depth management's real good, he doesn't get too far out, doesn't get too far back. He's not out of control, he's in control, he doesn't over-slide. When he's on his game, pucks stick to him a little bit more."
As usual, Blashill declined to name a starter before Sunday night's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, saying all lineup decisions would be made after warm-ups.
Mrazek is 1-5-0 with a 2.45 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in six career games against Toronto while Howard is 6-3-2 with a 2.31 goals-against average and .908 save percentage.
Blashill confirmed that Mike Green will miss his second straight game with an upper-body injury but would not say whether Luke Witkowski, who scored his first career goal Saturday, will remain in the lineup.
HOT LEAFS: After a bit of a lull, the Maple Leafs have picked it up again, going 8-2-0 in their last 10 games.
They are third in the Atlantic Division with 75 points, three points behind the Boston Bruins and six points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"I've had a chance to watch them more lately than I did during that period where they weren't playing, where their record wasn't as good." Blashill said. "Different line every night is the one thing that stands out to me. One night I watched, (Auston) Matthews-(William) Nylander put on a show, another night I watched and (Nazem) Kadri was unreal, another night I watched (James) van Riemsdyk's great, (Mitch) Marner's great. So it seems like a different line's been doing it every single night. I didn't get a chance to see much of the Pittsburgh game, I saw clips but not a chance to just watch the game. The other thing, obviously (Frederik) Andersen's playing real well."
Only four teams have scored more than 200 goals this season, with the Lightning leading the way with 211.
The Vegas Golden Knights have 202, the Leafs have 201 and the New York Islanders with 200.
But there is a way to try to counter that kind of lethal offense.
"Making them defend," Blashill said. "If they're attacking on offense all night, they're a really good, high-firepower team. If you can make them defend, they're not on offense. So we got to make them defend as much as possible, we got to get out of our zone and we got to keep the pressure on them all night long."
