Notes: Athanasiou ready to return but Zadina now out

DETROIT -- The Red Wings just can't seem to get a player back from injury without losing another one.
That sad, season-long trend continued Sunday as Andreas Athanasiou practiced fully while Filip Zadina did not skate.

Wings coach Jeff Blashill said Zadina suffered a lower-body injury Friday in New York, played through it Saturday but will now miss two to three weeks.
"It's unfortunate," Blashill said. "It's unfortunate for him, unfortunate for us. It's kind of the way the year's gone a bit and that's life sometimes but it is unfortunate. I thought he was gaining confidence, I thought hew was really starting to play well. He was making plays at the right times, he was living another day at the right times, getting real good opportunities with Larks and on that power-play unit. It's unfortunate but there's not a thing we can do about it except try to get him back ready to roll and hopefully get him going at a high level when he gets back."
During Sunday's practice at the BELFOR Training Center, Athanasiou took Zadina's spot on the top line with Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi.
He also took Zadina's spot on the first power-play unit with Larkin, Bertuzzi, Filip Hronek and Dennis Cholowski.
"That's what I did today is I slid him on that line, slid him in that same power-play spot," Blashill said. "It's unfortunate because you think you're kind of adding another offensive player to kind of make yourself deeper but it is fortunate in the sense that we had just lost Zadina, you're losing firepower, so now you get firepower back obviously with Andreas. That part's good."
Blashill said Frans Nielsen, who missed Saturday's game with an upper-body injury and did not skate Sunday, would not play Monday and is day to day.
Defenseman Trevor Daley, who did not play because of the back-to-back, practiced fully Sunday.
MANTHA SKATES IN ORANGE: The other bit of encouragement was the sight of Anthony Mantha skating with his teammates for the first time since suffering a mid-body injury Dec. 21 at Toronto, when Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin slammed him to the ice.

"I'm feeling better," Mantha said. "Obviously today was the first practice with the team, so it feels good mentally. Physically, I've been getting better over the last couple of weeks. I can't complain."
Mantha wore the orange, no-contact jersey during practice.
"We have 7-10 days with no contact," Mantha said. "If everything goes well, then hopefully I could start practicing with contact, and from there we'll see how long it will take for me to be in game shape."
Mantha said after the injury, he couldn't do anything conditioning-wise for three weeks, then had to basically start over.
"You have to have a summer mentality of working out every day," Mantha said. "Just new. Start again. It's from zero. Right now I feel really good, so hopefully we could bring it back soon."
Although Mantha has now suffered several long-term injuries as a result of on-ice altercations, he does not intend to stop defending himself or his teammates.
But there is a balance to be struck.
"There's a balance for sure," Blashill said. "You see throughout the league, there was obviously some stuff going on in Calgary there last night and Boston-Winnipeg I heard got heated. You want guys to look after each other, you want guys to look out for each other. You don't want a team of selfish players that don't care about each other, so that's No. 1.
"Obviously with Anthony, we want him to be real careful. He's been hurt multiple times sticking up for himself or teammates and we don't want that. We don't want him out of the lineup. So he's going to have to be real smart about how we proceed with that. Maybe somebody else steps in instead."
While the physical toll is obvious, having to sit out for so long and more than once in a season can take its own toll mentally, especially as the team struggles.
"It's terrible," Mantha said. "For a couple of weeks I was just staying at home and watching them. It's hard not to be out here for moral support, trying to help the team win. It's been a long six weeks."
But seeing Mantha out there and getting Athanasiou back does help morale a bit. "It was good to obviously have Athanasiou and Mantha back on the ice together as two more guys that are real good offensive players for us," Blashill said. "So I think it gets guys excited just to see that Anthony's on the horizon. I anticipate Andreas playing tomorrow so that's good, especially losing Zadina. That obviously gives a little boost. I know when guys see Anthony out there, they're excited."
Defenseman Madison Bowey said it was nice to see both of them on the ice, joking around and looking much healthier.
"It's tough," Bowey said. "They're a big key to our team, a key to success. Especially for our future, they're huge. Just to see them back on the ice and making strides -- Doubles is really close to coming back. Just having that speed and having that skill back in our lineup will be huge for us. Hopefully, it'll give us a chance to finish this second half on top and getting a few wins here before the season ends."
While Mantha will take some more time, it will be interesting to see how quickly Athanasiou can get back up to his full speed.
"I hope he comes out and is flying and is super offensive like he can be," Blashill said. "Can he do that right away? He's been out for a little bit. If anybody can, he can because he skates so well and he's so electric as a player that when he's on, he can do that stuff. You gotta be cautious generally when guys are out. I'm cautious with it, but I also think he's the type of player and the type of athlete that can step right in and go where I think a big guy like Mantha takes longer, takes longer to get going.
"A guy that's as explosive as Athanasiou, I think he can hit the ground running."