Having not played since December 14, Andreas Athanasiou will play against the New York Islanders on Thursday, the LA Kings announced.
It’s been a difficult year for the 27-year-old. Re-signed to a one-year deal over the summer, Athanasiou has played in just 11 games, sidelined with COVID and a lower-body injury. He’s been really productive when healthy, tallying three goals with three assists while averaging 15:15 TOI.
It’ll be interesting to see who sits tonight and if Athanasiou can inject some offensive energy into this team.
Based on how the team aligned in practice yesterday (via LA Kings Insider), it would appear that Carl Grundstrom is the odd man out tonight. We’ll see if that holds true.
Iafallo – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Grundstrom – Athanasiou – Byfield – Brown
Lemieux – Lizotte – Kaliyev – Kupari
Anderson – Doughty
Maatta – Roy
Bjornfot – Durzi
Moverare – Strand
Petersen / Quick / Ingham
The LA Kings are third in the National League Hockey with 35.4 shots per game but 22nd with 2.77 goals per contest. Athanasiou can give the team that much-needed finishing ability.
In 12 career games against the Isles, the Woodbridge, Ontario native has two goals and five points.
Puck drop is set for 4:00 pm PT from UBS Arena.
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