Flyers sticking with veteran Cam Atkinson amid his 12-game goal drought

NASHVILLE ― It’s been a tough stretch for Cam Atkinson.

The Flyers winger has 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in 27 games this season but is riding a 12-game goal drought and has just three assists during that stretch.

“I think he’s been around the offense, I think he’s been in the offense. I know Cam so well, I can tell by his body language what he’s thinking. I think he feels he wants to do more to help the team,” coach John Tortorella said. “... Yeah, I think he’s gripping it a little bit. I think it affects his energy sometimes where he feels he’s just not doing enough for the team. We’re going to stay with him though, because I still think he’s created offense, he’s created some chances with that line.”

Atkinson, 34, had an opportunity to break the schneid Saturday in the Flyers’ 5-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. The forward had a breakaway but was stopped by Ivan Prosvetov, who then stopped linemate Joel Farabee.

» READ MORE: Unsung Nick Seeler and Sean Walker have formed a perfect pairing for the Flyers

Although he’s not scoring, he is setting up scoring chances and goals. In the team’s 4-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes to kick-start the three-game road trip, Atkinson made a pretty backdoor pass to Farabee crashing the net for a tap-in goal.

Atkinson finished off the 2021-22 season with a 12-game drought and has a couple of 12-gamers dating back to his Columbus Blue Jackets days. His longest stretch without a goal is 17 games from Dec. 6 to Jan. 21, 2015, also with Columbus.

“If there’s one guy that needs to score a goal, it’s that guy, because I think it releases him from all the other things,” Tortorella added. “Has killed penalties very well for us. I think that line [with Farabee and Scott Laughton] has had some struggles defensively. I just want them not to lose sight, no matter what’s going on offensively with each individual. You’re playing against some top players on the other teams.

“They’ve got to do their job defensively when it’s not working so much for, you know, maybe Cam and Laughts offensively. So that’s what I’m looking at now and Cam is smart enough to know to continue doing that and the other stuff will come.”

Atkinson has five goals and eight assists in 26 career games against the Nashville Predators.

With Ryan Poehling returning to the lineup after missing two games due to illness, Marc Staal will come out of the lineup so the Flyers can go back to 12 forwards and six defensemen. It means that Egor Zamula will stay in the lineup. As Zamula told The Inquirer in Arizona, he has been working on playing more with one hand on his stick, and Tortorella has noticed improvement.

“The last two or three games, I think he’s been more consistent within the game,” the coach said. “I think he’s made some adjustments to his game. We’ve talked a lot about with him, with one hand on his stick, because he plays so much with two hands and he loses some of his length that way. I think he’s worked at that. It’s still a work in progress as far as the pace of the game. Sees the ice very well; I just don’t think he moves the puck quick enough. I think he’s worked at that. So yeah, he seems more comfortable.”

» READ MORE: The Flyers are ‘building something special’ as they rack up wins. Here’s how they’re doing it.

Sam Ersson will be in net Tuesday against Nashville. It is his first career start against the Predators. ... Travis Konecny enters the game with a three-game multipoint streak. He has scored twice in each of the last two games. ... The Flyers enter the game riding a five-game point streak and a four-game winning streak and are 8-2-0 in their last 10 road games.