One year ago, Cam Atkinson left the ivy halls of Boston College and joined the Springfield Falcons for 5 games to start his pro career. Last nite he scored an NHL hat trick to spearhead the Jackets to a 5 – 2 win over the Colorado Avalanche. What a difference a year makes. At 5′ 8″ his is small for the NHL. He has speed and last night he was buzzing all over the ice. He was definitely in the zone.
Not that Atkinson was the whole show. It was a team effort. Rick Nash had 2 goals, Steve Mason stopped 35 of 37 shots, despite being hit on the mask and minutes later being laid out on the ice by a big collision. Steve Mason did stand tall. The first goal he allowed he was kinda left out to dry, with only 1 defenseman in position. But he made a number of saves ” better saves” as they say. Ryan Russel and Aaron Johnson blocked shots. The defensive pair of JJ and Wiz had a great offensive nite as well as being defensively responsible and and… and, oh well, plaudits for all, we won.
Rick Nash left the game with a “lower body” injury. Although he did come back to the bench to watch the game, he did not play the 3rd period. There is some conjecture that as he let the shot go for his 2nd goal, he fell funny, possibly twisting his back. Rick had a good game and even layed out a few times in defensive efforts.
But the night seemed to be Atkinson’s. He was interrupting play, making steals, and going for the goal all night. True his last goal was an open netter. But he was heavily defended and ended up with a no look between his legs shot into the net. For such a little guy, he played huge. But a word of caution here. If you remember last year, Matt Calvert had a hat trick and a big night. In the following games he almost disappeared. Last night very much looked like it was Cam’s coming out party, but next year starts in 2 games, so we will have to wait and see if it was the portending of great things or not.
One more game for the season that overall was from hell. We want the cup!!