AA and Mantha take up residence in Chateau Bow Wow

The idea was to give Anthony Mantha a jump start in order to get him out of his scoring slump. Instead, there is now uncertainty as to whether Mantha will even suit up for Friday’s Detroit Red Wings game against the New York Rangers. “We might have one question mark,… Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “We’ll deal with that come game time.… Blashill admitted that the player in question was indeed Mantha. “He had a little nagging thing coming in, and so we’ll see,… Blashill said. There’s another nagging thing about Mantha, and it isn’t a mysterious physical ailment. It’s a lack of productivity. While still Detroit’s leading goal scorer with 13, the right-winger has scored once in the last 10 games. The questions about Mantha that have been posed since his junior days continue to be posed, and with merit. He disappears for long stretches, goes off the radar, vanishes from sight. The numbers he’s put up this season tell a story of ebb and flow. During the first 10 games of the campaign, Mantha produced 4-4-8 totals while the Wings went 4-5-1. He followed that up with 6-5-11 numbers in the next 10 games, and Detroit was a solid 6-3-1. Then things get sketchy, for both Mantha and the team. He was just 2-1-3 in the next 10 games, while the Wings skidded along at 1-5-4. In the past six games, he has contributed a goal and an assist and the club is 2-3-1. “I just think I need to shoot the puck more,… Mantha explained. “I think a couple of games I passed away a couple of shots and tried making cute plays instead of keeping it simple. “I need to keep working hard. I need to create my chances and like I said, shoot more.… If Mantha answers the bell Friday, Blashill planned to pair him with center Dylan Larkin in the hopes of reigniting the fire in Mantha’s belly. “I think Mantha and Larks have had some success together, too, so we’ll see how it goes,… said Blashil, who also experimented with Tyler Bertuzzi in Mantha’s net-front role on Detroit’s first power-play unit. “When he first got in that role, he was doing a real good job staying in front of the goalie’s eyes, and I think he got a little bit away from that,… Blashill said of Mantha. Mantha isn’t the only young buck who isn’t bucking of late. Forward Andreas Athanasiou has gone 15 games without a goal. He played just 8:34 in Detroit’s 3-1 loss at Boston and 12:36 in the Wings’ 3-1 setback at New Jersey, both below his season average of 14:39. Blashill clearly is disappointed in Athanasiou’s compete level of late. “I don’t see one player in this league that’s a great player that doesn’t work and compete every shift,… Blashill said. “You name me one player that’s a great player in this league – not a good player, not a skilled player, a great player - that doesn’t work and compete every shift. “So, whether that’s AA or anybody else on our team, if you want to be great, that’s what you have to do. I think the times he’s done that, he’s been great. He’s got the ability to do it, but he’s got to do it on a consistent basis and when he does he’ll get rewarded with ice time.… Much of the future of this team rests on the shoulders of young players like Larkin, Mantha and Athanasiou, and if they are going to carry the torch going forward, they need to ensure that it stays lit. Bringing everything you’ve got every night is mandatory to excel, and if Blashill figures he needs to give his younger players some tough love in order to further drive that message home, he’s prepared to do so. “I think in order to be great in this league, you need to compete like crazy, work like crazy and have detail like crazy every single shift,… Blashill said. “That’s what the great ones do. That’s what Z’s (Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg) done here for years. “We just played (Boston’s Brad) Marchand and (Patrice) Bergeron, that’s what they do every single shift. I don’t think they’ve been scored on five-on-five the whole year. That’s extreme work and compete and detail. “So those guys, if they want to be great in this league, just like everybody else, they’re going to have to work like crazy, compete like crazy and have detail every single shift.… Until they do, they’re going to find that there’s always a place open for them in the dog house. Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer