Red Wings vs. Columbus Blue Jackets 2-23-16

Detroit Red Wings center Andreas Athanasiou nets the shootout winner Tuesday and is congratulated by Dylan Larkin and Henrik Zetterberg.

(The Associated Press)

GROSSE POINTE WOODS - If speed kills, one of the Detroit Red Wings' potential lines for Saturday's outdoor game in Denver could be lethal.

Coach Jeff Blashill is looking at pairing Dylan Larkin with Andreas Athanasiou for the Stadium Series event against the Colorado Avalanche at Coors Field (8 p.m., NBC). They practiced together Wednesday at McCann Arena; Athanasiou at center and Brad Richards on the other wing.

"We wanted to look at it in practice," Blashill said. "There's three days before the game."

If the line stays intact, Richards would take most of the draws.

"The one thing that Richards gives that line is a proven faceoff guy," Blashill said. "The other two guys, if there's a negative to them playing center, it's that they haven't proved themselves in the circle. AA in the American League was about 49 percent. That usually equates to about 44 percent up here. If that's the case, I couldn't put him out in the D-zone or the O-zone.

"Richards gives them a chance to win a faceoff and then I think the line combination, it's lots of speed and dynamics and a real smart guy who's got over 1,300 points in the NHL. So I think it could be a real good line."

Blashill added, "They're going to get on the ice lots where it's not a stoppage and I had AA in the center position. If it's a stoppage and it's a D zone faceoff or an O zone faceoff, I'd assume lots of times Richards will be taking those faecoffs."

Larkin used a football analogy to describe the line.

"I just try to keep up," Larkin said. "Even today he was flying around. It's exciting. I love it. It opens up a lot of room. I don't think it's cheating because of our speed to blow by defensemen and create odd-man rushes. We can really use our speed together and hockey sense and then you have a guy like Brad Richards who knows the game and is responsible defensively, I told him he's like a quarterback with us two wide receivers flying around in the zone."

Said Athanasiou: "You have Richards handling the puck and you use your speed, he's going to find you."

Athanasiou assisted on Larkin's first goal as a professional during the AHL playoffs last season. They also played together a bit during the Prospects Tournament.

"He has a tremendous skill set and that speed, too," Athanasiou said. "We can be dynamic out there and Richie is a veteran, he's so smart. It's going to be a lot of fun playing with those two players.

"Once you get it in deep on those guys and get moving around you put them on their heels. It opens up a lot of ice for the other three players on the ice, too."

Athanasiou logged 15:30 in Tuesday's 2-1 shootout victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, nearly twice as much as his average of 8:19 in his first 15 games.

He had a few shifts in overtime and used his speed to blow past a defender for an excellent chance in tight. He scored the deciding goal in the shootout.

"One thing that's extremely important is that you have to earn your minutes," Blashill said. "He's had to earn his minutes. There's probably times when I could have played him more but it's more important for him to go through the process of earning those minutes. He certainly has done that."

He might earn more.

"I think he's going to have a pretty good amount of minutes the next game," Blashill said. "I told him today as long as you remain accountable defensively, you stop on pucks and do all the things he's done for me for a year-and-a-half - that he hasn't always done his whole life -- he's going to have a chance to have a real positive impact for us."

They skated with these lines Wednesday:

Henrik Zetterberg-Pavel Datsyuk-Justin Abdelkader

Brad Richards-Andreas Athanasiou-Dylan Larkin

Gustav Nyquist-Riley Sheahan-Tomas Tatar

Teemu Pulkkinen-Luke Glendening-Tomas Jurco

Darren Helm did not practice Wednesday due to an illness.

On defense:

Danny DeKeyser-Kyle Quincey

Niklas Kronwall-Alexey Marchenko

Jonathan Ericsson-Mike Green

Brendan Smith-Xavier Ouellet (will be reassigned to Grand Rapids)

Blashill said he hasn't decided on his defense pairs for Saturday.

Blashill declined to reveal his starting goaltender for Saturday.

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