In Red Wings Land

Andreas Athanasiou proves to be prolific X-factor in Red Wings’ offense | The Detroit News

Detroit — Admit it, you’ve been waiting for Andreas Athanasiou to go into a lengthy slump.

As Athanasiou was apt to do the previous two seasons, going through stretches where he’d be red-hot, then out of sight in terms of the scoresheet.

That was one of the larger knocks against Athanasiou, his lack of consistency.

But if you’ve been waiting, well, you may keep on waiting.

Andreas Athanasiou has finally become an everyday player and it’s fun as hell to watch. The Red Wings’ record might no be spectacular, but if you add up the fact that AA is taking the next step, Dylan Larkin is making major progress and the on-the-job training for Dennis Cholowski, Filip Hronek and Michael Rasmussen, then this season has been a pretty good success in the development department.

Around the League

31 Thoughts: Pettersson, McDavid could test year-end awards thinking | Sportsnet

Sadly, no Detroit-related thoughts this week.