When the Detroit Red Wings and speedy forward Andreas Athanasiou finally ended their contract standoff last month, the team knew they were getting back a valuable piece of their offensive attack.
For some players, missing their squad’s training camp could potentially hamper their performance, but Athanasiou seems to be picking up right where he left off last season.
“Everything is coming back,” Athanasiou said. “It’s still a little bit early, (just) a few games, but I’m playing well and there’s only steps forward for me to take.”
It also helps that head coach Jeff Blashill decided to play him with Detroit’s top offensive players.
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“Anytime I get up there (on the top lines) I try to build as much chemistry with whoever I’m out there with,” he continued, “and play off them as much as I can.”
Blashill has noticed that as with any player, there’s room for improvement. However, the adjustment back to life in the NHL seems to be going as well as the team could have hoped.
“From a standpoint of getting back after missing time, he’s totally there,” Blashill said. “Like every other player, we continue to work on getting better on a lot of things.
“He was playing good (Saturday). He started to really feel it and he got fed minutes (playing time) as a result.
“The other thing is, with the 11 forwards (Justin Abdelkader was out of the lineup and Luke Witkowski was used on defense) we had about four guys who could play center and all of them saw a lot of minutes.”
BONUS CONTENT
Forward Martin Frk will not play on Wednesday night against the Calgary Flames with what Blashill described as a “lower body injury”.
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“Frk left practice today,” Blashill said. “It looks like he’ll be out tomorrow. I can’t tell you how long, lower body, could be a week.”
Additionally, forward Darren Helm didn’t practice for the second straight day and has been listed as questionable for Wednesday.
