Written by: Alyssa
The Columbus Blue Jackets, my Metro rival turned guilty pleasure, had some very big player losses this offseason, and the current longest lasting Columbus player, Cam Atkinson, had something to say on that. Atkinson was asked at the 2019-20 NHLPA Media Tour about former teammates (specifically Panarin, Duchene, Dzingel and Bobrovsky) that signed with other teams during the offseason. When asked what he would miss about those players he said, “Nothing”. Atkinson added, “Obviously we’ll miss them, but we want guys that want to wear the Blue Jackets sweater and represent Columbus.
Atkinson went on to say that he understands the business of signing with new teams, and clearly isn’t as mad as Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella. With the re-signing of one of 2019’s biggest RFA’s, Zach Werenski, and the improvement of CBJ’s younger goaltenders, Atkinson’s “move on” mindset seems to work well for Columbus at the moment.
In closing, Atkinson remarked on the doubts the Blue Jackets are facing this season.
“I think you have to look at it like we have to come in with a chip on our shoulder because everyone’s written us off already. How do you think that makes the players feel? You can either go one of two ways: you can either take that and use that as motivation to prove people wrong or you can use it and go the opposite way and say maybe they were right… I know being a leader I’m going to make sure we come in with a chip on our shoulder and prove people wrong.”
Via NHL on NBC Sports
In my Metro predictions I had the Blue Jackets barely missing the playoffs and I still stand with that, their team did historic things last season but with the major player losses they will have to fight much much harder to have a run at the cup. But this team is strong and I see them doing amazing things in the near future.