Atkinson flourishing for Blue Jackets after hitting reset button

Cam Atkinson didn't know why, and that was the hardest part of it.

But he knew something wasn't right.
"For whatever reason, it was like I didn't like hockey anymore," Atkinson, a 29-year-old right wing for the Columbus Blue Jackets, said last week. "It was weird. I just didn't want to play. I wasn't having fun."
Atkinson is referencing last season, when his numbers (13 points; six goals, seven assists) in 32 games before Christmas reflected his passion, or lack thereof, after signing a seven-year, $41.125 million contract Nov. 17, 2017, right in the middle of that 32-game stretch.
"It was more like I was on autopilot, so I was there but I wasn't fully there," Atkinson said. "I wasn't devoting my time to my craft and getting better. I just wanted to get in and out and get through the game."
If that wasn't enough, Atkinson fractured his right foot in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Dec. 23, 2017. It was as if things were about to go from bad to worse.
They didn't. Atkinson instead found that spending several weeks away from the Blue Jackets helped him rediscover the passion you see him playing with today, the passion that helped him get selected to play for the Metropolitan Division in the
2019 Honda NHL All-Star Game
at SAP Center on Jan. 26 (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS).
Atkinson closed last season with 18 goals in his final 33 games. This season, he leads the Blue Jackets with 24 goals and he's second behind Artemi Panarin with 42 points in 38 games, putting him on a 51-goal, 90-point pace, numbers that would shatter his NHL career highs of 35 goals and 62 points from 2016-17.

He's scored 18 goals in 23 games since Nov. 10, including nine in a seven-game goal-scoring streak from Nov. 10-24, a hat trick in a 9-6 loss to the Calgary Flames on Dec. 4 and five goals in six games since Dec. 20.
"When I broke my foot, I kind of hit the reset button there," Atkinson said. "The guys were on the road and I really had time to think about everything. … I was shooting pucks by myself at the rink and just kind of fell back in love with it and wanted to get back to the way I know I'm capable of playing. Sure enough, ever since then I kind of took off."
Atkinson started doing the things that got him to the NHL as a sixth-round draft pick (No. 157) in the 2008 NHL Draft who played three seasons at Boston College.
He began to play with courage, meaning he started going to the net again, which is arguably the best thing about his game. He began developing chemistry with linemates Pierre-Luc Dubois and Panarin, a pair of playmakers who like playing with Atkinson because of how he plays.
"I know he's going to the net," Dubois said. "He can find that quiet space where nobody is around him in the slot, where it's hard. I don't know how he gets open that well and that often, but when I get to turn or when I get around the net I'm just waiting for him because I know he's open. That's what makes him dangerous. You can guard him but as soon as your guard is down that's when he gets open and that's when he scores his goals."
Another reason for Atkinson's surge since the second half of last season is his maturity, Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said.
"Early on, when he had a good game, he was 10 feet tall and forgot how to practice the next day and forgot what to do, as far as preparing again," Tortorella said.
And now?
"He understands himself better and I think he understands his game, when it's on, when it's not, and how he can get himself to be more consistent," Tortorella said. "He's flat-lined. He doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low."

Atkinson credited his busier home life -- his wife, Natalie, gave birth to the couple's first child, son Declan, on July 24 -- for helping him mature, saying he's easier on himself because he has to change his focus when he goes home.
"That allows me not to get so hard on myself because I kind of have to turn the page," Atkinson said. "In that way, it lets me play a little looser, a little more free."
Tortorella saw that early last month, when Atkinson went six straight games without a goal from Dec. 6-17 despite his 26 shots on goal and numerous Grade A scoring chances.
"He just went about his business. I don't think it affected him," Tortorella said. "All goal-scorers want to score. They want to be on that sheet at the end of the night. I'm sure he thought about it, but it didn't affect him the way it used to, where he'd get so low. He's one of the top players in this league. I think he feels that and I think he feels a tremendous responsibility to the organization. He signs a new contract and all that, he's part of the leadership group now. He's grown. He's one hell of a player."