Notes: Carolina's Mrazek set to start against former team

DETROIT-- The Red Wings welcome back an old friend tonight.
The Carolina Hurricanes are in town and their starting goaltender for the game at Little Caesars Arena is Petr Mrazek.

Mrazek was originally the Wings' fifth-round pick, 141st overall, in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.
The Wings traded him to the Philadelphia Flyers last season and Mrazek signed with the Hurricanes as a free agent on July 1.
"My old neighbor," Andreas Athanasiou said after the morning skate. "I haven't talked to him. I'll talk to him after. Maybe I'll text him today, I don't know. I'm sure it'll be fun to see him out there."
Mrazek is currently 1-2-1 with a 3.06 goals-against average and .874 save percentage.
"He's been pretty solid," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "He hasn't played a ton yet, we're still kind of going back and forth a little bit. But that's kind of what the plan was. I think he's been stable, which is what we needed."
It will not be the first time Mrazek plays against his former team as he was in net for the Flyers one time last season.
He was pulled midway through the game after allowing three goals on 19 shots in a game the Wings won in a shootout, 5-4.
"I think he's excited about it," Brind'Amour said. "What are you going to say? We know he's going to be ready to play. Now we got to make sure his teammates pick him up."
As to whether Mrazek has the advantage because he knows most of the Wings' shooters or the Wings have the advantage because they know Mrazek's tendencies, Wings coach Jeff Blashill said it depended on both teams.
"It depends who executes better," Blashill said. "Petr has great goaltending in him, I don't think there's any doubt about that. If anybody's seen that, I've seen that. There's times where he can be and has been an excellent NHL goalie. We need to find ways to get it by him tonight. I think it's probably more the team versus the team than it is one individual against one individual on another team."
GETTING MANTHA GOING: When Anthony Mantha is on, he can be a tough player to stop.
But Mantha has not been at his best so far this season, something he acknowledges and wants to change.
"Probably been skating. That's the main key. I haven't been battling as hard as I wanted, so that's the biggest thing right now.
"I had a meeting with Blash the other morning. We talked about it. That's why I'm on the fourth line. I need to get my game going and go back up the ladder."
Mantha is currently on a line with rookie center Christoffer Ehn and Thomas Vanek.
"I don't know why it's a recurring theme but it's something we're going to keep working at," Blashill said. "I think he's a good kid who wants to be a real good player and our job is keep trying to do everything we can to help him get there.
"He's got to find a way to get himself moving in a more consistent basis."
Mantha believes he took a step forward in the team's 4-3 overtime win over the Florida Panthers Saturday night.
"It's just being intense, winning battles, using my body to win those battles and obviously putting the effort in a little more in games," Mantha said. "I think last game I didn't play a whole lot of minutes but I won my battles, I had a couple scoring chances. I need to build off that and keep going forward."
ATHANASIOU ON WING: Since being moved from center to Frans Nielsen's wing, things have improved for Athanasiou.
Tyler Bertuzzi is on the other wing.
"It's a little bit different. It's a little bit of a different game on the wing but I don't mind it," Athanasiou said. "I like playing with both those guys, they're a lot of fun to play with and I think we work well with each other so I like it."
Overall, Athanasiou has two goals and two assists in eight games but could easily have at least two more goals after missing on two breakaways earlier in the season.
"I think I'm getting a lot of chances," Athanasiou said. "I think I've had some unlucky bounces, finally got the first one there in Montreal but I think just keep building and trying to help the team win. I think when I get my chances, really bear down and try to make the most of them."

Athanasiou had an excellent training camp and preseason and is expected to take on a bigger role as one of the core of young veteran players.
"He's had a number of solid games," Blashill said. "Obviously, our team's record is what it is, so no one has been great on a consistent basis. Ultimately, you're the sum of your parts. But I think he's had a number of solid games. The line of him and Bert and Nielsen the last two games has been good. They're gaining chemistry. So hopefully that's a real positive. Bert is a real accountable defensive player but smart enough to put pucks into spots for Doubles to be successful. I thought Fransie has played his best two games the last two games. It's been solid. We need a little more out of everybody or we wouldn't be with the record we are but we'll keep working at it."
BROTHERLY LOVE: As the Hurricanes finished their morning skate, Evgeny Svechnikov emerged from the Wings dressing room and made his way on crutches to Detroit's bench.
He was there to greet his younger brother, Andrei, who was the second overall pick by Carolina in this past summer's draft.

Last Tuesday, Evgeny underwent surgery to reconstruct his right anterior cruciate ligament and is expected to miss 5-6 months.
"When he first told me he got surgery, I was feeling bad for him," Andrei said. "He has good emotion right now but he just want to keep going, keep working hard. I think he'll play this season."
The two brothers trained together this past summer and were hoping to play against each other tonight.
"I wish he were playing against me but that's OK," Andrei said. "Those things happen. We will play next time."
Andrei has two goals and two assists in eight games this season. He said his brother still gives him advice.
Instagram from @evgeny\_svechnikov37: Showing my bro @andrei\_svechnikov37 how good is to play for Hockeytown 🏒🏒🏒👊
"He talk with me every day, like, he watch my game sometimes and he told me some mistakes," Andrei said. "He helped me a lot for sure."
Brind'Amour said Andrei is like most very young players in the league -- he has a lot to learn.
"I love the kid because he wants to learn," Brind'Amour said. "That's the key with these young kids that come out of junior, they have so much to learn about how to play the right way. They know how to play with the puck, but I always say you've got the puck 10 percent of the time that you're out there so there's 90 percent of the time that you don't have it and that's the part of the game that I think all young kids need to get better at. He's one of them but I love it that he wants to learn."