Strong criticism hits home for Red Wings’ Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou
Jeff Blashill: Red Wings' Andreas Athanasiou needs higher compete level
At every turn, Blashill says "when he's engaged, he's fantastic. The problem is, he's not engaged enough."
You are making excuses because if he was out of sorts because he missed training camp? That's his ****ing problem. If you want to be on a top line and be leaned on for twenty minutes a night and be a star in this league? You need to play your ass off every night.
There isn't a "oh, well I'm better than Abdelkader so I should be playing." With AA's skillset, it is a travesty that he lets himself not be a top 6 forward by not putting in the effort.
You have me wrong. I don't think that AA is a horse-crap hockey player. At least not AA when he's engaged. He rightfully deserves a top 6 spot when he plays with fire. The issue is he doesn't play with fire. And when you don't play with fire and consistency, you don't get the breaks that a player who does those things gets. I'm pissed about AA because I think he's pissing away his hockey career by not giving a damn. And I think the best way that you get him to give a damn isn't to coddle him and say "Oh, you're better than Abby, take a top 6 spot." It's "you skate your ****ing ass off and make plays or you'll be stapled to the damn bench."
I point it like you are "wrong" or whatever when you're using horsecrap logic to defend it. AA's trouble is effort and not showing up. The conversation shouldn't be "oh, if he had training camp to develop chemistry and such", it should be about how he missed training camp of his own volition for something he was entirely in the wrong for. He had a very indefensible holdout and he clearly "lost" the negotiation when he played for 1.35M when he was asking for 2.5
And it is opinion and I'm of the opinion that a team is better off without a "one of the best offensive players on the roster" if he's not going to play defense, if he's not going to show up and give an effort, and if he's not going to operate within the offensive system. For my opinion, even though I want him to be, even if AA is one of the best offensive players the Wings had... he's not good enough to be worth the nonsense he brings. He reminds me of the C level player who plays down at an E league game. Yeah, he's better than the rest of the slapnuts he's on lines with, but he knows it and he plays hero hockey. While that can work at beer league, AA's just not a good enough hockey player to have it work consistently at the NHL. I would be more willing to accept "well, that's my opinion" and not respond like I do if the tenor of the argument wasn't "oh, he's better than Abby and Abby gets more time and that's not fair."
The Wings would be a far more interesting team to watch if they had a bunch of pieces that meshed together and played the same system. A guy like AA doesn't. He's a Cadillac on a team of Tauruses.