Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press

Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill came away from his team's last meeting with the Florida Panthers generally pleased with how things went.

The Wings host the Panthers Monday, four nights after losing, 6-3, to the top-ranked Atlantic Division rival. This time, the Wings won't have played the night before, and carry the confidence of a convincing 5-1 victory Saturday over the Islanders. Sunday was a scheduled day off, but Blashill spoke after Saturday's game of what the Wings need to do against the Panthers.

"I want us to be on the attack similarly to how we were down there," he said. "You want to put teams on their heels, and the way you do that, you manage the puck. Two is using your speed. So we'd like to use our speed and put them on their heels."

Monday's game marks the second of five straight at Joe Louis Arena. One of the keys to beating the Islanders was reuniting Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.

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"They did a good job," Blashill said. "What did we call them - Eurotwins? I thought there were moments when you saw that, where they played off each other well.

"I told them this isn't going to be a short-term thing, and I don't know what long-term means, but we've got a good home stand here, let's see if they can feed off each other. "

Blashill even used the the line, which had Justin Abdelkader on the right wing, against the Islanders top offensive threat, John Tavares.

"It was hard ice for them, but they did a good job," Blashill said.

Another key was adding more speed in the form of Andreas Athanasiou. He and Dylan Larkin (who scored his team-leading 18th goal of the season in his second straight multi-point game), along with Darren Helm and Luke Glendening, make the Wings a faster team.

Count defenseman Kyle Quincey as a huge fan of both young players.

"Dylan has been a great surprise," Quincey said. "We're fortunate to have him. I'm a huge fan of AA. I think he's a great player and he belongs here."

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Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.