Atkinson hopes goal No. 200 is just the start of a big year

Scott Hartnell scored his 297th NHL goal on Feb. 22, 2016, in the Blue Jackets' win over Boston. Three games later, he put No. 298 in the net against Florida. Two games after that, Hartnell tallied his 299th goal March 4 vs. Edmonton.
And then, on the precipice of a milestone, the goals simply dried up.
Hartnell didn't score for the next month, a 15-game stretch, and went into the season finale against Chicago still stuck on 299.
Like any good teammate, Cam Atkinson was not above razzing the NHL veteran at the time.

"It's funny, when Hartsy was playing, he was stuck at 299 forever and I was at 100-something and I said I was going to get to 300 before he got to 300," Atkinson said. "It's just one of those things where you might be overthinking it."
Hartnell did get goal No. 300 in that contest vs. Chicago, then with the pressure off popped in No. 301 later in the game for good measure. And Atkinson hopes he can follow that path as a player who loosens up after going over the milestone hump.
The CBJ forward entered this year with 198 goals in his first nine seasons, then made it 199 in the seventh game of the year Jan. 26 vs. Florida. Then came four more games without a goal, and one of the most prolific goal scorers in franchise history had to be wondering a bit when No. 200 would go in.
It happened last night, as Atkinson took a perfect pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand in front of the net and slid the puck through the legs of Dallas goalie Anton Khudobin. That simple backhand flick of the wrists put Atkinson in rarefied air in franchise history, as he's just the second Columbus player to reach the nice round number after Rick Nash.

Atkinson says he doesn't play just to earn achievements like this, so his hope is that getting on the board and getting past the magic number will start a goal-scoring spree that will help the Jackets climb the standings.
"It was like when I hit my 30th goal or my 40th goal (in a season), it took a little bit to hit that, but once I did it seems like the puck was following me more and I just relaxed and wasn't worried about scoring goals," he said. "It just came to me naturally. Hopefully this is all behind me now and I can take off and play the way I know I'm playing. I think I did that tonight."
Adding some sweetness to the memorable moment was that it came on one of the rarest things in hockey -- a perfectly executed set play. Off a faceoff at the right-side dot, Jack Roslovic won the draw back to Bjorkstrand, who curled from his spot at left wing to collect the puck and swoop into the corner.
Atkinson began the play at right wing and went straight to the net, fighting through a check from standout Stars defenseman John Klingberg to get open to receive Bjorkstrand's pass. The Maestro had plenty of time to make the pass, feathering it through the legs of defenseman Esa Lindell onto the backhand of Atkinson, who was alone in front to put it past Khudobin.
How did the play compare to the design?
"Exactly how it happened," Bjorkstrand said with a laugh. "It is what we talked about. It was nice to turn out the way we talked about it, so it was great. You never know if the lane is going to be there for the pass, but everything fell into place."
After scoring the goal, Atkinson immediately pointed at Bjorkstrand before the two embraced to start the celebration.
"Literally to a T," Atkinson said about the execution of the play. "It couldn't have been any better and sweeter. That's what makes it so much more exciting, and to celebrate it with your linemates and teammates, especially on the bench, Bjorky and I were laughing pretty good there. Just around the world, and Jack won the puck back and everything worked itself out in a perfect sequence. I knew Bjorky was going to get it to me. It was a hell of a pass. It was just a nice goal."

And it was goal No. 200, a tally which does carry a certain weight to it. Atkinson's name was already all over the Jackets record book, and being just the second player in franchise history to reach the round number is history. That he's done it all as a sixth-round draft pick, overcoming the odds to reach his lofty perch, just adds to the story.
But for now, all Atkinson is thinking about is getting to No. 201.
"Obviously I love scoring goals, and sometimes I go through droughts and it's just getting back to the fundamentals of what makes me successful," he said. "I think in the last couple of games especially, I'm getting opportunities that I just haven't been able to bury. For me, when I go through those stretches where I'm not scoring, if I'm getting opportunities and not scoring, I know it's eventually going to go in."
And that it did on Thursday night, a milestone marker for a man with plenty of them in his CBJ career.