Notes: Green skating, getting closer to returning to Wings

DETROIT -- The good news is that Red Wings defenseman Mike Green has started skating with pads on.
The bad news is he won't be ready to play Sunday night against the Washington Capitals, his former team.

"I skated yesterday and today," Green said. "I feel good. Now it's just a matter of kind of getting back into game shape."
Green did not skate with the seven players and two goaltenders who took to the ice for the team's optional practice Saturday at the Belfor Training Center, instead going on his own.
Wings coach Jeff Blashill said after Green is able to skate with stops and starts, it should be about a week before Green can play.
Green said he did do stops and starts Saturday and it felt okay.
"It did, yeah. I'm just gonna kind of make sure that I don't have any setbacks," Green said. "Yesterday and today I haven't, so it'll be like Blash said, about a week."
The facts are pretty clear: the Wings are a much better team with Green in the lineup.
When Green missed the first nine games of the season with a virus, the Wings went 1-6-2.
In the last 11 games that Green has missed with a foot injury that he suffered blocking a shot against the Los Angeles Kings on Dec. 10, the Wings are 2-6-3.
"I think with everybody -- Dales (Trevor Daley) and DK (Danny DeKeyser) being out -- we kind of need all of our pieces," Green said. "Unfortunately, we've kind of all been in and out for times and that makes it hard to get wins. I think the guys have done a good job. We got a big win last night, so now we gotta create some momentum and continue to win games."
The Wings are seventh in the Atlantic Division and 14th in the Eastern Conference with 39 points in 43 games.
But Green still feels there is enough time for the Wings to climb back into the playoff race.
"If we go on a stretch here and win a good chunk of games in a row and we can kind of be right there again, and then we make our push at the end," Green said.
ATHANASIOU MOVING UP: Quietly, or maybe quickly, Andreas Athanasiou has moved into third on the team in scoring with 25 points in 37 games.
Last season Athanasiou had 33 points in 71 games.
Only Dylan Larkin with 40 points and Gustav Nyquist with 35 have more.
Athanasiou is second in goals with 15 to Larkin's 18. Both scored in Friday's 4-3 overtime victory over the Nashville Predators.
With one more goal, Athanasiou will tie the 16 he had all of last season.
"I just came into this season ready to play hockey," Athanasiou said. "I didn't really think too much about that. Obviously I want to do good for the team. Anytime you win it makes it a lot easier."

Athanasiou, 24, was one of the seven skaters on the ice during Saturday's optional practice.
Blashill said the speedy young forward is continuing to develop.
"I think Doubles is, first off, his daily engagement has been very good, so there's the side of development just understanding every time you move up the pyramid, your engagement and how good you have to play becomes that much more important, because everybody else becomes real similar to you in talent level," Blashill said. "When you're at lower levels sometimes you can produce just based on your talent level. As you move up the pyramid that can't happen, so I think his overall engagement has been very good this year. I think his defensive game the last couple of games has been very good. That's just something that has to continue to improve. I think he's been a good fit with (Darren) Helm and (Luke) Glendening."

Helm and Glendening are also good skaters who can keep up the pace with Athanasiou.
"I think we are playing really well actually," Athanasiou said. "I think right off the bat we've been playing really good together and getting better, too with the chemistry that's starting to build. It's a lot of fun when you get to play in the O-zone and there's a lot of speed on that line, so we definitely can use that to our advantage for sure."
When Athanasiou scored Friday night, it looked like a near impossible angle to beat Nashville's All-Star goaltender Pekka Rinne.

"He's super, super explosive," Blashill said. "Somebody said to me once you can judge your draft just based on explosiveness of people. He's super explosive and in today's game space is everything and one of the best ways to create space is speed and he can do it so fast. Larks (Larkin) is similar, but he is even more explosive. He is, I would bet, the most explosive player we have on our team from an athletic standpoint. Last night, that puck ends up behind the goal line for most people, most people aren't tracking that puck down and he tracked it down."
The play Athanasiou made is difficult to work on in practice.
"That just kind of came," Athanasiou said. "You obviously work around the net as tight as possible and work your way out. The play just kind of developed on its own and just happened to work out. It was fortunate, I guess."
It has gotten to the point where opponents mention Athanasiou by name, if they can pronounce it, which Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban said he could not.
"But he's got a ton of speed and skill and you could see it in our pre-game video clips, some of the moves that he makes at top speed, he does everything at top speed," Subban said of Athanasiou after Friday's morning skate. "He and Dylan Larkin and Darren Helm, those guys can fly."
Athanasiou is clearly gifted with elite speed but he says it is still something he continues to try to improve.
"I try to get to get to top speed as quick as possible," Athanasiou said. "That was always what I worked on growing up. I've been trying to get better at that my whole life and I'm fortunate enough that that's one of the strengths to my game is getting to top speed quick and I try to use it to my advantage as much as possible."
MANTHA FEELING GOOD: Anthony Mantha returned after missing 15 games with a hand injury and felt good enough that he skated in the team's optional practice Saturday.
"I felt great," Mantha said. "Legs were there, surprisingly. I thought I would have been rusty and tired quicker, but it wasn't the case. I worked hard on my time off and I think had 16 1/2 minutes, so it's a good first game back."

Mantha had 21 shifts for 16:45, had three shots, two hits, two giveaways, a takeaway, was 1-for-2 in face-offs and was even.
Mantha had a good opportunity to score when he intercepted the puck at the blue line and took it to the net, then dropped it for Thomas Vanek, trying to get Vanek a second goal in his 1,000th career game.
"Obviously, because it was his 1,000th, you kind of look for him a little bit more but at the same time I thought it was a play at the time," Mantha said. "When we came back to the bench, (goaltender Jonathan) Bernier told me that he made Rinne put the wrong pad down and doing that he was one push away from coming back on Vanny. So, if Rinne puts the good pad down, that should be an easy goal. It goes quick. I was going to pass no matter what."
Mantha is just relieved that he got that first game out of the way, in a win no less.
"You have no idea," Mantha said. "I skated for a whole month and I thought I was in shape and you come game time and it's so much different. Battles and then back-checking, forechecking, it's obviously different, but it felt really good."
BLASHILL'S RED, WHITE, AND BLUE TO THE CORE: You would imagine when Blashill has a rare Saturday night off during the grind of the NHL season, he would take a respite from anything to do with hockey.
But at 8 p.m. on Saturday, the Wings coach will be parked in front of his television, watching Team USA take on Team Finland in the gold medal game of the 2019 IIHF Junior World Championship in Vancouver.

"I think it's great, I love it anytime we finish higher than Canada, I think it's awesome, so my tournament is complete," Blashill said jokingly to a small gathering of reporters. "I'll be watching for sure. It will be great, a good win for them yesterday (2-1 over Russia), hopefully they can get it done here tonight,"
Blashill has been part of five Team USA coaching staffs and has been the Americans' head coach the last two years (2017 and 2018) at the World Championship Tournament which coincides with the NHL playoffs.
Red Wings Larkin (2017 & 18), Jimmy Howard (2017), DeKeyser (2017) and Nick Jensen (2018) have been members of Blashill's teams.
If Team USA can win the gold medal at the World Junior Tournament, it will be their fifth since 2004 and their seventh medal overall since 2004.
When asked if the Americans' string of success is due to the United States National Team Development Program (USNTDP) which began in 1996 in Ann Arbor and moved to Plymouth at the start of the 2015-16 season, Blashill said the growth of American hockey is much broader than the USNTDP.
"There are multiple reasons why U.S. hockey has grown to the level where you go to the World Junior and you expect to win," Blashill said. "Now when I say expect to win, I mean compete to win because the tournament is way harder than some people give it credit for, you're talking probably five nations that any one of them can win and when you're talking about single elimination anything can happen, but the fact USA Hockey is at the level it's at, certainly I think would be to a large part to the work Jimmy Johannson did and so many others at USA Hockey.
"My kids have grown up through USA Hockey and the increase in their numbers has tons to do with their grassroots effort that Colorado Springs has put forth, so, the National Development Program has done a very good job, but there are multiple reasons why, starting with the growth of the sport in (some states) and you can go back to that being with the NHL moving teams into some of those areas."
When it was formed, the USTNDP wanted to create a national style or brand of play for Team USA, so when the best American players came together to represent the U.S. internationally, the players were all taught the same way, the same system. Is there a distinct brand of American hockey?
"What I've found when I've coached internationally is everybody plays about the same now, so there isn't one unique brand of American (hockey)," Blashill said. "Everybody has their nuances. Russia is a little different, Finland is a little different, Sweden is a little different, but they all play similar to the NHL.
"Everybody plays close to what the NHL style is now, to be honest with you. I don't know if it didn't happen, it might have happened, it (NTDP) certainly could have affected pride, I think is a huge thing. I know the guys that have had the opportunity to be at that program, it means tons to them. There is a certain amount of pride when you've had to compete for your country multiple times, but that would be true to the guys who weren't there. There's a decent amount of guys who weren't at that program, they've got great pride for what U.S. hockey has done."