DETROIT -- Let's talk about the spin-o-rama first.
Late in the first period of the Detroit Red Wings' 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, Detroit forward Andreas Athanasiou noticed that veteran Lightning defenseman Jason Garrison had a step on him.
In a tight, scoreless game in a series that had been short on Red Wings highlights until this exact moment, Athanasiou slammed on the brakes, did a complete 360-degree turn and when he realized Garrison was now on his knees on the ice, had the presence of mind to cut back one more time toward Lightning goalie Ben Bishop.
Athanasiou felt the presence of Vladislav Namestnikov, who was hustling on the backcheck. He also spotted an opening on Bishop. The top left corner was there for the taking.
He flicked a shot and it sailed just high. But in that moment, a loud Joe Louis Arena, dying for anything positive to come out of a series in which the Red Wings trailed 2-0, was now juiced. It was completely energized.
It wasn't a goal but, man, did it provide a glimpse of what was coming -- in the game, and perhaps down the road for Athanasiou.
"It worked out," he said. "Partially."
"The spin move was nice," his coach Jeff Blashill said. "Real nice."
The game-changer from Athanasiou came in the second period when he one-timed a rolling puck for his first career playoff goal. The building before that goal was no longer energized. It was frustrated.
Before that even-strength goal, the Red Wings had four power plays and didn't convert on a single one. They had 59 seconds of a 5-on-3 and Lightning forward Ryan Callahan had more blocked shots than the Red Wings had shots on goal in that stretch.
The crowd had graduated from frustrated yells of "shoooot" to sarcastic shouts of "great, power play." So yeah, there was frustration.
Athanasiou buried the one-timer and buried the frustration. The crowd was back and the party continued when another puck rattled off each skate of Henrik Zetterberg and past Bishop for the game's only other goal.
This series that, after two games, looked like a Lightning runaway was now suddenly interesting again. Sparked by the 21-year-old from London, Ontario.
"I talked to him this morning about the fact that he's got the ability to play [fewer] minutes and still have an impact," Blashill said. "When he wants to own the moment, he's real good."
He did his damage in 9 minutes, 5 seconds of ice time, the highest of any of the three playoff games in which he has played so far in his young NHL career. He is the kind of skilled, talented player who doesn't need a ton of ice time to make an impact.
He also didn't play much in the third period with Detroit protecting a 2-0 lead because that's not the time you break in a rookie during the playoffs.
But his limited ice time doesn't seem to shake his confidence in the least.
Take the spin-o-rama, for example. He said it was the first time in his career he attempted that move.
He's getting eight or nine minutes a game in the playoffs and he's attempting spin-o-ramas. That's confidence.
You see it off the ice, too. Sitting in his dressing room stall, with a mesh Stadium Series hat on backward, he calmly chatted with a pack of media around him. When a television microphone slowly moved uncomfortably close to his face, he smiled, stopped his answer in mid-sentence to move it away.
"Sorry, that's a little close," he said politely and then cracked a joke. "It's OK. What did [Pavel Datsyuk] say the one time it was in his face? It's not ice cream."
He's having fun and this is the perfect series to spot him minutes. This isn't a big, heavy team like the Kings or Blues that would smother the space before he even thought about a 360.
This is a skilled, fast Lightning team that does allow a little speed and skill to come back the other way.
"My strength is speed, I can blend into the game and do what I do best, which is skate and make plays at high speed," Athanasiou said. "Settling in hasn't been too much of a problem."
Increasing his minutes was smart by Blashill. As it turns out, just about every adjustment made by the first-year coach paid off in this crucial game for the Red Wings. Goalie Petr Mrazek got a shutout in his first start of this postseason in place of Jimmy Howard. Defenseman Brendan Smith entered the series for the first time, in place of Kyle Quincey, and was fantastic. Blashill constructed a shutdown line anchored by Luke Glendening and they held nemesis Tyler Johnson without a point, drawing a couple of penalties in the process.
Aside from missed opportunities on the power play, the only negative is that Athanasiou didn't think anyone grabbed him the puck from his first NHL playoff goal. It's a minor oversight considering just how much the Red Wings needed a game like this.
"That's alright," he said. "The win is more important here."