Blackhawks' Andreas Athanasiou nearing end of brief, disappointing season with one goal in hand

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This past weekend, Andreas Athanasiou scored his very first goal of the Blackhawks' 2023-24 season.

It was a relief to finally get it — although the play Lukas Reichel made to set it up was a lot more impressive than Athanasiou's layup of a shot into a gaping net — but that doesn't change how disappointing of a season this has been for the 29-year-old forward.

The dominant memory of Athanasiou's season will be the 53 games he missed (spanning four months from Nov. 9 to March 12) due to a groin- and hip-related injury on his right side. For the second time in three seasons — since he also missed the bulk of 2021-22 with the Kings — his health has limited him to fewer than 30 games.

Even when in the lineup, though, he hasn't been nearly as impactful as he was during his Hawks debut season, when his world-class speed seemed to fit perfectly in coach Luke Richardson's system.

With 40 points in 81 games, he actually finished last season as the Hawks' leading scorer among remaining players (after Patrick Kane and Max Domi were traded). This season, he touts only eight points in 23 games.

His analytics reflect a similar decline. Last season, he averaged 7.9 individual scoring chances per 60 minutes of five-on-five ice time. During his 11 games pre-injury this season, he averaged 6.0. In the 12 games since he returned, he has averaged 4.4.

When examining scoring chances his teammates have produced during his ice time, that rate was 15.5 per 60 minutes last season and 18.4 during his first stint this season, but it's only 9.7 so far during this second stint.

"When you sit out for that long, it's a little bit of a new feeling, coming back and playing," Athanasiou said Tuesday. "I've had some good chances in some games. [I'm] just building throughout all zones of the ice."

He has been unlucky not to score more than once this season — his shooting percentage of 2.6% is a far cry from his career shooting percentage of 11.9% and will inevitably regress toward the mean over time — but he hasn't generated enough opportunities, either.

Asked if he feels like he's attained his usual top speed since coming back, he said he has "more in the tank." That could be a contributing factor to his reduced effectiveness offensively, since his ability to race away from opponents and create breakaways has always been a huge part of his game.

But the data doesn't back up the idea that he isn't skating in top form. He has averaged 40 bursts of 18 miles per hour or faster per 60 minutes of ice time this season, which is actually slightly higher than his rate last season of 38.9 such bursts.

"I know where I can get to and how fast I can get to it," he said. "The mental side, I'm pretty comfortable with it. There's situations [where] it still gets better...[but I'm] still skating pretty decent, so that's a good sign."

At this point — with just five games remaining — Athanasiou will be best-served flushing this entire frustrating season and coming back stronger and rejuvenated for training camp in September.

The fact he signed last summer a two-year contract, which will keep his salary-cap hit at $4.25 million again in 2024-25, works out well for him.

"Anytime you have a contract in this league, it's something to be grateful for," he said. "I'm definitely pumped for that."

Note: Nick Foligno will miss the Hawks' matchup Wednesday at the Blues due to a personal matter, with Taylor Raddysh reentering the lineup in his stead. Connor Murphy also isn't quite ready to return from his injury, but he and Foligno will both likely play Friday against the Predators.