The Blue Jackets took the ice at Nationwide Arena this morning with 24 skaters, one short of their normal total from this week. Cam Atkinson was the lone absentee, but both he and Todd Richards said there's not much cause for concern.

Richards met with the media following today's practice, which lasted just under an hour, and said Atkinson was out with a "minor lower body issue." Other than that, no specifics of the injury were provided.

In the absence of Atkinson, the Blue Jackets mixed and matched line combinations for their second straight day of intrasquad scrimmaging, starting the morning with Nick Foligno on the right side of Derick Brassard and R.J. Umberger. The line of Dubinsky-Anisimov-Dorsett remained intact and looked good in both scrimmaging and drills for the third straight day. 

Richards also said that, at this time, he doesn't have any concern that Atkinson could miss opening night on Saturday in Nashville, but he doesn't want to make any predictions either way.

"He'll come in tomorrow, we'll re-assess, and see where he's at," Richards said. "I'm sure there's other teams dealing with similar issues whether it's minor or major. If you're out an extended period of time, you're going to miss a good amount of games."