Howard believes Detroit's two-goalie problem may be a big positive this year.

One would imagine that fighting for a starting job that looks like it currently belongs to Petr Mrazek is not Jimmy Howard's idea of an ideal start to training camp, but the Red Wings veteran goaltender has tried to look at the positives of his current predicament and he actually highlighted some very interesting points. 

Howard highlighted how a two-goalie battle could be a benefit in a season compressed by the World Cup of Hockey.

"The schedule is almost like we're in an Olympic year," Howard said as per Red Wings insider Ansar Khan. "It's going to be very tight, a lot of games each week. You have to be ready to be called upon.

"It's turned into a two-goalie league."

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It's hard to disagree with him here, the Red Wings will be playing a total of 17 sets of back to back games this season, and one would imagine that whoever is the back up at that time will be called upon to shoulder a significant part of the burden. Howard sounds like he's ready to do that even if it's in a back up role.

"Obviously, it's Pete's job to lose (when) you finish the year in between the nets. It's my job to push him, not only to make him better but me better as well."

While you may wonder if a guy who was named an All-Star in 2015 can truly be happy as a back up it sounds like Howard really wanted to stay in Detroit and is simply happy to be a Red Wing.

"I'm happy I'm here. I really didn't want to leave in the first place," he said. "My family loves it here; I love it here. I've got a lot of great friends in the dressing room, so I'm happy for that."

It may not be the ideal situation for the Red Wings and Howard may not be here by the end of the season as a result, but for the time being his presence can be turned into a big positive for Detroit this season.Not to mention that he very well may be the goalie Detroit chooses to expose during the expansion draft, further increasing the value of keeping him on the roster.