Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

It's Like Training A Wild Colt When It Comes To Andreas Athanasiou

04/18/2016 at 8:33am EDT

I will be the first to admit I have never trained a wild horse or for that matter, I've never really trained anything wild, but I get the impression the Wings are doing just that with Andreas Athanasiou.

Maybe more specifically, they are training him in the 'Red Wing ways'.

Maybe I am reading too much into it but look at some of the quotes via Brian Savage of Mlive.

"He's one of the guys that doesn't get that much ice time but he really takes care of business when he's out on the ice," said captain Henrik Zetterberg, who scored Detroit's other goal. "He almost had an unbelievable goal there in the first. Then he finished a nice pass from Andy."

Good goal but don't forget others were involved.

"He came here and wasn't an elite player yet in the American League and we can't expect him to put the team on his shoulders and be an elite player here in the NHL," said Blashill, who coached Athanasiou in Grand Rapids last season. "It doesn't work that way.

"What we did do was pull him up for the specific purpose that he's got great speed ... and he's a guy who seems to be able to handle less minutes and still have an impact. Most players can't do that. He's good defensively. It's really just about his overall impact on the game.

"Can he have a great impact? When he wants to own the moment, he's great. He did a great job with the role that he was given and I expect him to continue to do a great job with the role he's given."

Play within the parameters we have set for you.

"The spin move was nice, real nice," Blashill said with a grin. "If that would have went in ..."

It's not all about how it looks.

more on Athanasiou...

If you missed the spin move, watch a GIF of it below...

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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