|
When all is even, AA scores all A's |
|
|
|
|
|
When things are even steven, Andreas Athanasiou is at his most dangerous.
Forward Athanasiou scored his 14th goal of the season for the Detroit Red Wings in Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild, and it was the 13th even-strength goal of the 2016-17 campaign.
While it’s well off the league-leading pace of 25 goals currently being set by Michael Grabner of the New York Rangers, Athanasiou has as many even-strength goals as such notables as Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, John Tavares of the New York Islanders and Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The thing is, Athanasiou has accomplished similar totals to these stars while playing significantly fewer minutes.
Athanasiou has averaged 13:11 minutes per game, compared to 20:11 for Tavares, 18:29 for Malkin, and 16:58 for Marner, a rookie.
So you might rightly ask, what’s the fellow got to do to get out there more often?
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill insists that Athanasiou still needs some work in the areas of discipline and consistency.
“When he uses his legs, he’ll play more,” Blashill said. “The more he uses his legs, the more he’ll play. When he floats, he won’t play as much. That’s just the reality of it, because when he uses his legs he’s excellent.
“So by using his legs, I mean pressuring on the side walls. When the puck goes on the side walls we want to pressure that. He can take one stride and be on top of guys.”
Blashill is confident that the message will get through and that before long, Athanasiou will be doing the things required of him to play top-six minutes.
“It’s a maturation process,” Blashill said. “He’s got to make the choice to do that on a consistent basis. When he’s engaged – what’s engaged? Engaged for him means skating and winning battles – and when he skates and wins battles and stops on pucks he’s an excellent hockey player.
“He’s got to make sure that on a consistent basis he does that. That to me is the great separator from OK and good players to great players, that you do it on a consistent basis night in and night out, especially the more attention you draw and the more you’re able to do it defines a great player in this league.”
Blessed with world-class speed and explosiveness, it’s essential that Athanasiou deploys this weapon, since it will overtake just about any opposing defense.
“It’s easier for Double-A because he’s got dynamic speed,” Blashill said. “It just allows him, even on nights when Double-A doesn’t have it, he can still create something out of nothing because he’s got that dynamic speed
“There’s very few of those guys around.”
Nyquist Waits
Detroit forward Gus Nyquist, assessed a double-minor for high-sticking Minnesota’s Jared Spurgeon in the face in the first period of Sunday’s game, waived his right to an in-person hearing with NHL player safety and will await his fate, all the while insisting it was an accidental high stick.
“I’m just trying to get over to the other side of him and my stick gets caught,” Nyquist said. “You know, obviously I’ve got to have better control of my stick but (it was) completely accidental.”
Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»