Notes: Athanasiou expected to play against Penguins

PITTSBURGH-- Andreas Athanasiou was all set to play at home Dec. 22 against the Florida Panthers.
Then after taking warmups, Athanasiou ended up being a very late scratch with an upper-body injury that happened Dec. 20 in Carolina.

"I just kind of fell awkwardly a little bit," Athanasiou said. "It's all right. It was just grabbing me a little bit, a little soreness. Those last couple days helped definitely. Should be good tonight."
After missing the Florida game and the next game in Toronto, Athanasiou was able to heal enough that Wings coach Jeff Blashill said he anticipated Athanasiou will play in Pittsburgh tonight.
Athanasiou went through the morning skate, taking line rushes with Luke Glendening and Michael Rasmussen, and also working with the second power-play unit with Rasmussen, Tyler Bertuzzi, Filip Hronek and Niklas Kronwall.
"I definitely did some stuff to take care of it obviously," Athanasiou said. "There were a couple days which were huge. So I did some rehab, saw some people, did some treatment. It feels good and I should be good to go."
As the injury only affected his upper body, Athanasiou was still able to skate.
"I'm just fortunate enough that it wasn't as bad as maybe it could have been," Athanasiou said. "Just happy to be able to go tonight."
BACK TO WORK: After three full days off to spend time with family and friends during the three-day Christmas break, the Red Wings have to jump right back into it.
Because there is no team activity allowed on Dec. 26, the Wings traveled to Pittsburgh Thursday morning on a game day.

"No big deal," Blashill said. "We're both on the exact same page. We both had three days and then you gotta skate and play. I don't think it's a big deal at all. We gotta go play. I think the biggest thing is going to be how we execute, the attention to detail with which we play."
During the season, players get in the routine of skating nearly every day so having three days off is a great time to refresh.
But then playing in a game without a real practice can be a challenge.
"You gotta get moving again," defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. "I think that's the biggest thing. That's something everybody needs to do. Take a break, not just physically but mentally as well, just get away from hockey and focus on your family and your kids and enjoy that for a few days. Right now, you just gotta get moving again. Get skating and get back into it."
TOUGH OPPONENT: The Wings will face the Penguins for the first time this season and they've been on a hot streak, having won three in a row and five of their last six.
"I hope the break cooled them off," Blashill said. "What do you have to do against Pitt? Well, you can't defend all night for sure. They're like Toronto, they're going to make a bunch of plays if you defend all night, so you gotta make them defend as much as you can. The way you do that is through pressure. It's also a team you gotta be above and you gotta take away their space. If they're allowed to skate up through the middle of the ice and allowed to skate from their zone into your zone with lots of space it's a tough night. There's times we've played good against them and times we haven't. We're gonna have to be on top of our game."
In December, the Penguins have already racked up 17 points, third behind Tampa Bay's 21 points and Winnipeg's 20.
"They're one of the best teams and they have a special skill set that very few teams have with the top three they have, with (Sidney) Crosby, (Evgeni) Malkin and (Kris) Letang and some other really good players as well," Kronwall said. "So it's definitely a big challenge. But for us we have an important month ahead of us before our next break. We gotta get back in the mix here."
Letang has always had success against the Wings, getting points in seven of his last eight games against them. The offensive defenseman has five goals and five assists in those contests.
"I think he's got extremely good instincts in the way he handles the puck," Kronwall said. "He's almost like a forward, if that makes any sense. He's extremely smooth out there and sometimes he almost thinks like a forward. He's so smart. He just knows when to get into the play. He's got good chemistry with those guys. He's been playing with them for some time. And he knows when the puck is coming. But he's good on the other end with the puck, too."
Letang is seventh in the league in scoring among defensemen with 28 points. Toronto's Morgan Rielly is first with 44.
"He's an elite player, there's no question about it," Blashill said. "He's become a really good, well-rounded player without a doubt. They have a number of weapons and you can't just focus on one. You just gotta make sure that you're team game is great. If there's any free ice out there it's a tough night against them. If you can make that ice hard for them to inch up the ice, then you got a way better chance."
HELM SKATES: After getting injured on Nov. 17 in New Jersey, Darren Helm was expected to miss six to eight weeks with an upper-body injury.
It has been just over five weeks but Helm joined the team on the road trip and participated in the morning skate in Pittsburgh Thursday.

"His status is that he's going to skate with us the next few days," Blashill said. "He will not play in Dallas, but he's going to skate the next few days and see where it is. I don't know until you start to test a little bit more if you can give it a little more specific timeline than that. But he's obviously inching closer based on the fact he's out there with us right now."
DALEY REFLECTS: It was an incredibly special game for defenseman Trevor Daley before the break as he skated in his 1,000th career game in his hometown of Toronto.

Daley remained in Toronto during the break and fielded tons of messages from friends offering their congratulations on the amazing milestone.
"It was nice," Daley said. "It was nice just to sit back and the people that came through, the text messages that I got from teammates and ex-players, guys along the way. It shows what type of game we get to play in every day. We have some amazing people and I think sometimes wins and losses get so focused on that, when you get a chance to sit back and think about the people you were with along the way, the friends you made, this game is pretty special for that."
Daley said he heard from so many people that he even had to ask some of them who they were because it had been so long since they'd been in contact.
Others, he knew exactly who they were.
"Obviously me and Steve Ott are real tight so I got to talk to him," Daley said. "He left me a nice video message. So many guys. You obviously thank everybody and everybody had a part in doing this. We're so fortunate we get to play this great game. The game's great but the people are even better."
After playing in his hometown, Daley now gets to play in Pittsburgh where he won two Stanley Cups in 2016-17.
Then the Wings travel to Dallas, where Daley started his career.
"Just the way I told them to put it on the calendar," Daley joked. "Definitely, it's amazing. Like I said, the friendships, then obviously the pinnacle to get the job done is win Stanley Cups in this league, and obviously to do it two back-to-back with a lot of these guys over here, it's always good to come back here."