Year in and year out, there isn’t a player on the Blue Jackets that is short changed like Cam Atkinson. Pun aside, he is one of the most consistent players on the team and it has gone relatively unnoticed.
Offensively, he always put pucks into the back of the net, and this year he is dishing out many more assists. Defensively, he seems to have bought into the Jackets message, he has some risk to his game, but it looks to be paying off. Just how great has his ascension been for the team?
A lot of writers have been pointing at percentages and telling you that “this won’t last” or “this is unsustainable.” They may very well be right in some regards, it is also important to point out certain trends that the team is going through. The Jackets have had a recent trend where their shot differential numbers have been some of the best in the league, compared to earlier in the year, it could look suspicious.
It makes sense as a Jackets fan and as a writer to look at their past performance as the barometer for this year. After all, the Jackets haven’t been good, and when they have been good it has only been for short periods of time. During their most recent playoff year, they started the year poorly and ended up coming on strong. They flipped their numbers over in a moments notice when Jared Boll got injured, however this year doesn’t really have a moment that made it all click.
So of course it is natural for observers to doubt the team and Atkinson is part of that. Before last year it looked like he may have plateaued and we had already seen the best play from him.
But for Atkinson, to his credit, defensively he works hard on the back check and is a nuisance on the penalty kill. He is seeing the ice twenty seconds more than he has ever in his career and it isn’t by accident.
His shooting percentage is slightly higher than his career average but not so high that it should be troubling for Jackets fans. The encouraging part of his point totals and offense this year is the assists he is putting up. They are almost at a 50/50 split between the power play and even strength. Atkinson sees the ice so much those types of splits are a good sign. You don’t want a player to get shoehorned into a role that can be easily stopped. No one has been as diverse in his scoring prowess as Atkinson. He even has a short handed goal.
The one area for improvement for him this year would be his shot differential numbers. His entire line of Atkinson, Dubinsky and Jenner has been down all year. Surprising given that both Atkinson and Dubinsky have always had good numbers there in years past. While it isn’t necessary considering what he is doing offensively, it would be nice to see more consistency here. It would take him from great to absolute domination.
It is okay to be questioning this team and it’s legitimacy, you have been burnt before supporting this team. But one player that has remained a constant throughout his time with the team has been this diminutive right winger, he is leading this team when it has mattered. Watching the game, you see just how infectious he can be to anyone who watches.
Why not believe?
(stats courtesy of Hockey Reference)
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