Cam Atkinson encourages you to doubt him.
Go ahead and call his 25 goals a fluke. Say it’s surprising that he’s tied with Alex Ovechkin, Mark Scheifele and Max Pacioretty for third in the Rocket Richard Trophy race. Tell him he’ll crash down to earth soon enough.
He wants to hear it. In some ways, he needs to hear it.
“I’ve had to have that my whole life,” Atkinson, who leads the Columbus Blue Jackets with 47 points in 51 games, said of criticism. “Every age group growing up, people would tell me I’d never make it to the next level, and you had to use that and have a little extra arrogance and cockiness to your game.