The Red Wings continued their excellent tear of play in a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night. Our key play ultimately came down to one of two players: Andreas Athanasiou, or Dylan Larkin. We voted on it, and we decided to go with Andreas Athanasiou. Larkin had himself one hell of a game, but there was one play in particular that stood out above all else — Athanasiou’s filthy snipe that broke Martin Frk. Before his goal, Athanasiou also had himself a beautiful assist on a Thomas Vanek goal. But, let’s look at the goal, shall we?
Opening sequence
It was a board battle to begin with. Athanasiou found himself on the ice with the OMG line (not the line he had played with for most of the night). Steve Ott and Luke Glendening tied the puck up along the boards, which gave them a chance to regain control:
Both Ott and Glendening did a great job at battling with Victor Rask and Jaccob Slavin. Ott used his strength to feed the puck free to Glendening, who with a helmet half-on-his-head, made a gorgeous play to an open Andreas Athanasiou:
The goal. The beautiful, beautiful goal
Once Athanasiou got the puck on his stick, he hesitated. This slight delay tied up the man covering him, which just so happened to be “former Red Wing” Martin Frk. He didn’t look so hot:
Seriously, what a nasty shot by Athanasiou. This is his second goal in two games using his howitzer of a shot. Here’s a closer look:
And just to throw a little salt on the wound, let’s break down Martin Frk’s defensive collapse, shall we?
The Red Wings tightened up their bootstraps after Athanasiou’s goal, and locked down a 4-2 win. After starting the season 0-2, I think most fans are feeling pretty good about this team right now. Let’s see if they can keep it up.
