GREAT EXPECTATIONS

– Sign above the Detroit Red Wings' dressing room exit

Anthony Mantha remembers what it was like when he was first learning to play.

“When you’re young, it’s all about having fun,” Mantha said. “We would go to the park outside and just skate. My dad and my grandfather would take me to free skates and that was the main message, just have fun, probably all the way up to midget AAA.”

Almost from the beginning, Mantha excelled. A natural athlete, he has participated in a plethora of sports – tennis, golf, cross country, handball, soccer, badminton – but hockey was his first love. “Back in those days, it was easy,” he said. “You’re just having fun with your friends and hanging out.”

If Mantha is feeling a little nostalgic about growing up in Longueuil, Quebec, north of Montreal, it’s because his first professional season has not been easy.

Expectations were high. Many people had anointed Mantha to be the next star in Detroit despite the fact that he is only 20 years old and is still learning to use all of his tools.

“For Anthony Mantha, it’s a process,” said Griffins head coach Jeff Blashill. “Everybody wanted to expediate his timeline to a very, very unfair degree. This is a hard, hard league and it’s a huge jump from major junior. I thought the expectations were extremely unfair.”

After a season in which he scored 81 goals in 81 games with the Val-d’Or Foreurs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Mantha has struggled to show similar results at the AHL level. Through his first 28 games, he had six goals and six assists.

From the perspective of his coach, there is no reason to be discouraged. “Anthony is growing as a player and he’s working to get better,” Blashill said. “He’s going to be a great player – it’s just a matter of time and the adjustment process.”

Of course, knowing it’s going to take some time hasn’t lessened the frustration felt by Mantha, who is no different from most young players itching for their first NHL opportunity. “The adjustment has been harder than I thought,” he said, even though he has been schooled in the ways of hockey from his childhood.

His grandfather is Andre Pronovost, a four-time Stanley Cup champion who played for the Red Wings from 1962 to 1965. His father, Daniel Pronovost, played one year of hockey in Europe before an accident cut short his career.

“When I began to think about a career in the sport, they gave me advice,” said Mantha, who shares his mother’s name with sisters Kim, Elizabeth and Barbara and is only distantly related to Moe Mantha, the former NHL defenseman who is currently the co-owner and head coach of the Michigan Warriors NAHL team in Flint.

His dad and grandfather encouraged him but never pushed, offering helpful advice but never criticizing.

“My grandfather always told me to remember three words in French: travail, ténacité and talent,” Mantha said, which roughly translate as work, perseverance and skill. “If you are willing to work and face adversity, you can build a career off your talent.”

Mantha came face-to-face with adversity before this season.

This past fall, there was talk of Mantha making the Detroit roster right out of major junior hockey. The Red Wings talked about trying him out on the team’s top two lines during exhibition games, and even Mantha harbored high hopes that he could make the team and show that the Wings had made the right decision when they selected him with the 20th overall pick in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

“I had my best summer since I started training,” said Mantha, who was lifting more weights and putting more mass onto his 6-foot-5 frame. “I was confident that things could align and I maybe could stay in Detroit.”

But his highly anticipated training camp audition never came to fruition. He suffered a fractured tibia when he hit a rut in the ice and fell awkwardly during a prospects tournament game in Traverse City before the main camp.

“I thought I was just sore, so I finished the game,” he recalled. “The next day they kept me out of practice just in case, and two days later they told me to get an X-ray. It was hard when I found out that it was fractured, but I didn’t take it as the end of the world. I needed to pull my sleeves back up, battle through rehab and get back on the ice.”

Still, it was a crushing blow. “When the real camp started, they came out with lines and I think I was on a line with (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Gustav) Nyquist,” he said. “I was thrilled, and then the next day I learned I couldn’t even take one practice, let alone play in any exhibition games.”

Not surprisingly, it played havoc on his psyche. “My family was supposed to come and watch some exhibition games, but they still came to spend time with me,” he said. “They knew my mental attitude was a little down, so they came to cheer me up.”

With a prognosis of being out 6-8 weeks, Mantha did his best to stay positive. He bonded with his three older sisters, talking by phone or text messages. He found a role model for his rehab in his sister Elizabeth, a University of Montreal blueliner who had to recover from her own leg injury last summer.

When he finally worked his way back into action in mid-Novembver, he offered a glimpse of what he could do, scoring a goal in two of his first four games in a Griffins uniform. But he tallied only one goal in the next nine games, and one more in a 15-game stretch that started on Dec. 20.

It was a humbling experience.

“This is really a great league,” he said. “It doesn’t look that fast from the stands, but when you’re in the middle of the action on the ice, you get a different point of view. When you lift your head up, you’ll have one guy on you or maybe two. You’ve got to see the play before it happens. You’ve got to keep moving your feet.”

If the injury ever threatened to darken his mood, he found solace in the idea that every cloud has a silver lining. Maybe getting more minutes in the minors wasn’t such a bad idea after all. More games in the AHL now might mean more success in the NHL later.

“We all know Detroit’s way of working with their kids,” he said. “If you look at the younger players in the Red Wings’ lineup – (Riley) Sheahan, (Tomas) Jurco, (Gustav) Nyquist and (Tomas) Tatar – they all played here. I hope I can build on the success that they had here.”

While it may be difficult to admit, the truth is Mantha was not ready for the NHL, and he is a smart enough player to recognize that fact.

“It’s all about becoming an everyday player,” he said. “If I want to end up in Detroit, that’s the message. I need to be on my ‘A’ game every night. I’m playing against men now and there are a lot of heavyweights in this league. If I can work and win my battles against these guys, maybe in the next few years I could be in the corner with (Zdeno) Chára, winning battles.”

He’s determined to silence the whispers. He’s heard the critics who have suggested that he needs to ratchet up his competitive drive.

“There were teams at the NHL combine that told me straight up,” he said. “People were saying that my consistency level wasn’t the best. They were saying my 1-on-1 battles weren’t that great. I needed to work on my defensive zone. But I knew it. I know how I play and I knew there were things I needed to improve.”

For his mental well-being, Mantha is doing his best to avoid the hype. “I’ve tried to ignore everything, whether it’s good or bad,” he said. “I need to focus on all of the little details that will help make me become a better player. The way I see it, some people are going to like you and some are not.”

While the stats may not show it, Mantha is starting to feel better about his play two months into his first professional season. “I think I’m playing good games the past few weeks,” he said. “I just need that finishing touch to come back and then we should be all set.”