Cam Atkinson’s Inspiring Comeback and Return to the Ice for the Philadelphia Flyers 2023-24 Opener

2023-07-13 12:59:13

After being sidelined for the entirety of last season, Cam Atkinson will be back on the ice for the Philadelphia Flyers’ opener of the 2023-24 campaign, the forward said.

The 34-year-old winger circled the Flyers’ first game on the schedule, once morest the Columbus Blue Jackets, his former club.

“I’ll be very excited to play this game no matter what, but obviously the fact that it’s going to be in Columbus is the icing on the cake,” he told NHL.com. .

Atkinson suffered an upper-body injury early last season and eventually required neck surgery in December, at which point he was ruled out for the remainder of the year.

He credits his recovery to doctor Alex Vaccaro following initially trying to avoid surgery last fall.

“He told me and reassured me by telling me that if I didn’t have surgery in a month or two, I would be almost paralyzed in my entire left arm because of the atrophy of my left triceps” , said Atkinson. I had surgery two days later and he said, ‘I’m going to help you get back to your elite level of play.

“As soon as I woke up following the operation, the pain was gone. I feel that once I had surgery, I overcame the obstacle that prevented me from regaining my level of play.

Acquired in the summer of 2021 from the Blue Jackets in exchange for forward Jakub Voracek, Atkinson scored 23 goals and added 27 assists in 73 games in his first season with the Flyers in 2021-2022. Previously, he had spent 10 seasons at Columbus.

A veteran of 700 regular season games in the NHL, Atkinson has a record of 236 goals and 216 assists for 452 points. He also had 26 points in 35 playoff games.

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