Athanasiou a model of efficiency for Red Wings

By @StefanKubus –

DETROIT – Watching Andreas Athanasiou’s shorthanded goal from Detroit’s Wednesday-night win over the Philadelphia Flyers, it looked like that of a veteran who sees top forward minutes.

The explosive 21-year-old rookie forward took advantage of a Philadelphia miscue in his own zone, took off on a breakaway, pulled away from the defenders and beat Flyers netminder Steve Mason with a smooth backhand-forehand move, finding just enough room to tuck the puck in.

“It’s crazy and if you watch the replay, you can see he’s not even moving his feet anymore and the guy’s skating as hard as he can trying to catch him,” Red Wings forward Luke Glendening said. “He’s got special speed, he’s got special talent and he’ll be unbelievable here.”

That’s the kind of ability Athanasiou has brought to the table in his first NHL season. Though he has averaged just 9:01 of ice time per game in his rookie season with a Red Wings team fighting for its playoff livelihood, Athanasiou has continued to prove he’s a model of efficiency for the Red Wings.

“He’s one of the rare players that can make an impact without playing many minutes, and there’s not many players like that, but he’s got that lightning speed that when he does get those types of opportunities, he can really do a good job,” Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said.

In 35 games, Athanasiou has potted eight goals and five assists for 13 points. Among NHL skaters that have averaged under ten minutes per game this season, Athanasiou easily has the best points-per-game mark. Jack Skille (Colorado) and David Legwand (Buffalo) each have a single more point than Athanasiou, but have played in at least double the games.

“He’s one of those players who really takes advantage of his ice time and it’s gonna be interesting to see when he plays 18 minutes,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said of Athanasiou.

Though he’s made the most of his limited opportunity, it’s quite arguably harder for a player to stay fresh when he’s not seeing as much ice time. For a guy like Athanasiou, he said he does whatever he can so he’s ready to go, but that it’s more mental than anything.

“I’ve just got to get moving on the bench, every TV timeout, I get a little skate in,” Athanasiou said. I’ve just got to make sure my mental part of the game, stick with it and when you get those little minutes you have to be ready whenever you get the call.”

Athanasiou is relishing the experience in pushing for a playoff spot, experience he knows will be huge for both the team and his own career going forward.

“It’s definitely a big thing, such a history with this organization,” he said. “When you’re battling for a playoff spot, it’ll definitely go a long way.

“These last couple weeks, we know how important every game is, so we’ve been doing a good job of being calm, cool and collected here, even when we were looking from the outside there a little bit, but we stuck with it and we believe in ourselves.”

Watch Athanasiou’s shorthanded goal from Detroit’s Wednesday-night win: