In Thursday's practice at the BELFOR Training Center, Athanasiou was back on Dylan Larkin's wing along with Tomas Tatar.
"The biggest thing what I was trying to set up there, we were going to roll our four lines," Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "As the game went along, that line got scored on a couple times so that hurt their ice time for sure. I didn't think they had nearly their best night. He's going to go back on that line with Larkin, they've had good chemistry together lots of times through the year so he'll go back on that line. With Double-A, I think he's been way better here in the last two months in terms of his night to night work ethic and compete level. I'm sure he's going to be real good tonight."
Athanasiou has not recorded a point in the last six games.
Bertuzzi remains on the fourth line after stints on the top line with captain Henrik Zetterberg and Gustav Nyquist and on Larkin's line.
"Bert's got to make sure that he's on it every single night because he's not going to just be able to skate his way around the rink," Blashill said. "He's not a natural great skater, he's a fine skater and when he's going it doesn't show up but when he's not going, it shows up. It's a matter of just learning how much you got to be on every night in this league because the guys you're playing against are every bit as good as you, if not better sometimes.
"In the American League you can get away with it because lots of times you're better than the athlete you're going against. In this league, most guys aren't. it's just a learning process. I love him as a player, I think he brings tons to the table. I think he could have a big impact tonight."
Bertuzzi has also been held without a point the last six games.
PK IMPROVING: When the Wings lost Luke Glendening, Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader to injuries, their penalty kill suffered.
Although Dominic Turgeon did a fine job when he was called up, he just doesn't have all the experience those three have. The penalty kill fell to 21st but has climbed back to 17th at 80 percent.
"You just have guys that know what they're doing to a greater degree, they don't have to think about what to do, they know what to do just because they've had more reps," Blashill said. "That's not to knock the guys that were on it before, it's a matter of reps and when you don't get a lot of reps, it's hard to be real good at it. Some of the guys that are back in Glendening and Helm and Abdelkader, those guys made their way in the league being great penalty killers and I think in order to have a great penalty kill, you've got to have great killers."
HIGH-SCORING ISLANDERS: There is no team in the Metropolitan Division that has scored more goals than the New York Islanders' 184.
In the Eastern Conference, only the Tampa Bay Lightning have more with 194.
The problem is the Islanders allow a lot of goals, too, which is what happened in their 4-3 loss in Buffalo Thursday night.
"They got a lot of firepower offensively and they've done that consistently through the year where they can really, really score, there's no question about it.," Blashill said. "I thought last night their first period they were playing really good hockey and they were down 2-0. That's just the way it goes some nights and it wasn't anything that they did particularly bad, the puck just went in the net. But I thought they played a really, really good first and actually I thought throughout the game they played real well. We know there's been times when they've had us, in this building last time we played, we were on our heels most of the game. They outshot us, they outplayed us for most of the game so we're going to have to play at a real high level."
John Tavares leads the Islanders with 60 points and he and Anders Lee lead the team with 28 goals apiece.
Josh Bailey has 13 goals among his 58 points.
Mathew Barzal is making a very strong case for the Calder Memorial Trophy, leading all rookies in points with 53 (16 goals) and assists with 37.
The Wings defeated the Islanders, 6-3, in Brooklyn on Dec. 19 and Petr Mrazek earned the win.
Mrazek will start against the Islanders again tonight.
