The Detroit Red Wings received a gift under the Christmas tree in the form of forward Andreas Athanasiou, who will return to the lineup following a two-game absence with a upper-body injury. "I anticipate AA playing tonight,… Wings coach Jeff Blashill told Detroitredwings.com. Athanasiou wasn’t 100 percent sold on his return to action, planning to test his body in the warm-up for Thursday’s game at Pittsburgh against the Penguins before fully committing to his status. “We’ll see how it is,… Athanasiou said. “It feels pretty good. We’ll see how it goes through warmup and then go from there. But it feels like it’s ready to go.… Athanasiou had taken the warm-up prior to Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers and then opted not to participate in the game. “Yeah, it just didn’t feel right,… Athanasiou said. “I didn’t think it would be much help if it was grabbing me during the game and just for a split second taking me out of the play. So I just had to make sure I was ready to go and it wasn’t.… He suffered the injury in the previous game, a 4-1 win at Carolina over the Hurricanes. “I just kind of fell awkwardly a little bit,… Athanasiou said. “It’s all right. It was just grabbing me a little bit, a little soreness. Those last couple days helped definitely. I should be good tonight.… While opening gifts and partaking in Christmas cheer, Athanasiou also spent the NHL’s three-day holiday break rehabbing his injury. “I definitely did some stuff to take care of it, obviously,… Athanasiou said. “There were a couple days which were huge. So I did some rehab, saw some people, did some treatment. It feels good and I should be good to go.… Power Play Boost The Wings are hopeful that Athanasiou’s return will also invigorate the team’s second power-play unit, where he will join forwards Tyler Bertuzzi and Michael Rasmussen and defensemen Niklas Kronwall and Filip Hronek. “That will be good,… Kronwall said of the return of Athanasiou. “He’s used to being on the half wall and handling the puck a lot. He’ll probably do most of that and the rest of us will crash the net.… Blashill saw another advantage that Athanasiou can add to the group. “I think AA’s an important piece of that PP unit because of his ability to get the puck in the zone, which we couldn’t do very well with that unit the last game,… Blashill said. “But I think if you look at it, you’ve got AA, Bertuzzi and Rasmussen up front. Ras is a great net front guy. And you’ve got two real good power play defensemen. “It should be a good unit. Obviously, they scored in Carolina, which was good. We’re going to need them to continue to be good. I think there’s no reason why. They have the components to be a good unit.… Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer
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