So much to write about after running my own Amazing Race that has taken me from Columbus to Detroit to Toronto to Buffalo to State College and back to NJ over the past 72 hours! To add to the fun, I'm presently on my way to Boston to run a half marathon tomorrow. In short, I've lost my mind…. ;)
While you can look forward to some interesting blogs and some incredibly candid features in the not too distant future, I'd like to start with my stop in Columbus for Blue Jackets' training camp and the always affable Cam Atkinson.
If you've ever met Cam or seen him interviewed on TV or the radio, you'd know that he is one of the most laid back people on the planet. Nothing seems to bother him. He's always cool and collected and usually all smiles, but underneath that calm demeanor is a highly competitive human being.
You would never know it by the way he motors around the ice, but more than ten years ago, a doctor told Atkinson that he would never skate again after breaking both his tibia and fibula in his right leg during a tournament his freshman year of high school. He got a second opinion and then a titanium rod and two pins inserted by a top notch orthopedic surgeon and, once the cast came off, he did everything he could to prove that first doctor wrong. Not only was he going to skate again, he was going to do it better than ever.
He rehabbed like a person possessed. He worked out twice a day to strengthen his leg and six months after the incident, having missed his entire freshman season, he was back on the ice. At this point, playing hockey professionally wasn't even a blip on his 14-year-old radar, he just wanted to play. He loved the game and being on the ice so much that he couldn't imagine his life without it and although the road to recovery was grueling, Atkinson never took no for an answer. It simply wasn't an option.
Fast forward eleven years and look back at everything he has accomplished in his hockey career - a national title with Boston College, Hobey Hat Trick nomination, AHL All Star in his first professional season and now an NHL regular - and there isn't one challenge the 5'8, 165 lb (on a good day) winger from Greenwich, CT hasn't risen to meet. So, when Todd Richards sat down with him at the end of April and told him that he needed to do more to succeed at this level, he rose to the challenge and got after it in the weight room.
He worked out harder this summer than he ever has, focusing on his explosiveness, speed and overall strength to help him protect the puck and drive to the net better. So far, so good as we're already seeing the fruits of his labor with three goals and an assist in two preseason games thus far. More importantly, we're seeing it in how those points were earned - blazing speed, puck protection and a great shot.
Atkinson will never settle for being good enough when there's opportunity to be better and, as he'd be the first to admit, there's always room for improvement. At every level, he has been told that he's not good enough or not fast enough or not big enough or not whatever enough, but he has always made it his mission to prove them wrong. It's that sense of pride and competitive spirit that has driven him to be his personal best his entire life and taken him all the way to the NHL. And, after completing his first full season at the NHL level, it's that same competitive spirit that will drive him to not only be an NHL player, but to be an impact player for years to come.
As one scout said to me after the game against Pittsburgh on Tuesday, "If he can drop his shoulder and get to the net like that all season, he'll have a lot more than 40 points this year." But if you ask Atkinson, it's not about the goals or the points, it's about being able to contribute to the team in any way possible even if that doesn't translate into points….but with this being a contract year for him and the Blue Jackets looking to do more than just make the playoffs this year, it'd sure be nice if it did.
The Blue Jackets face the Penguins in another preseason match up this afternoon - 4pm ET - on the NHL Network.
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Julie
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