What We Learned: PHI 2, CBJ 1

It was a point earned, but it wasn't enough for the Blue Jackets on Friday night at Nationwide Arena.
It was also not the way they wanted to play against the Philadelphia Flyers, who won 2-1 in overtime despite an outstanding performance by Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
"We get a point because of the play of 'Bob,'" said Columbus coach John Tortorella, whose frustration showed during his postgame press conference. "I don't have an answer for 'ya, how we can play with that type of energy and that type of execution in an important game like this. No idea."
The Blue Jackets (29-24-5) outshot their eighth straight opponent. Again, it was by a significant margin (36-25). The problem was the first 30 minutes of the game, when they were too careless with the puck. Turnovers turned into multiple odd-man rushes at Bobrovsky in the first period, and he stopped them all.
Columbus rebounded to finish with more shots in the first, 11-9, but the period as a whole was a lot different than the Jackets' previous three games.
They topped 50 shots in those contests, going 2-1-0, and felt confident they could pepper Philadelphia goalie Michael Neuvirth the same way. They made him work for his 35 saves, but it wasn't enough and wasn't up to the Blue Jackets' recent standards.
"We played two teams prior to this that didn't play with much structure, [and] gave us a lot of ice to play on," Tortorella said. "This is a structure team. But we have to learn to play against teams that play with structure. We're going to have to play against teams that check tight. It's going to get tighter and tighter as each game goes by here, so I have no idea why we end up throwing something like that out there on the ice tonight."

It got even harder in the second, when the Flyers went up 1-0 on Wayne Simmonds' tip-in goal off a point shot by defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere. The Blue Jackets chased the lead from that point on, until Cam Atkinson was finally able to knot it, 1-1, with 3:28 left in the third period.
That one suddenly put Columbus in the hunt for a much-needed victory in overtime, something they'd done 12 times this season, but they only had the Flyers on the ropes.
Philadelphia was still standing, and that became a big a problem when Flyers forward Sean Couturier sent a hard wrist shot past Bobrovsky 1:52 into overtime - limiting the Blue Jackets to just one point.
It was a shock to their coach.
"Not even close," Tortorella said. "Not even close, with the way we played. A huge surprise. No idea [why]. Better not be nervous, because we've got [24 big games] coming up here."
Here's what we learned:
I: WHAT IT MEANS
The Blue Jackets remain perched on the edge of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference with 63 points after 58 games.
Had they gotten the second point, the Jackets would've owned the conference's second wild card - which belongs to the New York Islanders after their 3-0 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.
They're tied in points with Carolina, still in position to pass the Islanders and trailing the New Jersey Devils by three for the first wild card. The Flyers, who are third in the Metropolitan Division, are now five points up on Columbus with the same number of games in the bank.

II: SUPER 'BOB'
Bobrovsky usually breaks out the top-shelf stuff for his former team, and this was no exception.
The Jackets leaned heavily on their goalie during their sleepy start to keep the Flyers off the scoreboard. "Bob" was up to the task, stopping all nine shots in the first period, including three outstanding saves.
"At this time of the year, you play [your best] against anybody, any team, you know?" Bobrovsky said. "That's the time when you need the points so bad, and you have to be at your best."
His first two highlight-worthy saves were against Couturier, Philadelphia's leading goal-scorer, who came into the game with 28 goals. Couturier put back-to-back shots from close range on net, and Bobrovsky stopped both while lying prone in the crease.
The puck hit his right pad on the first one, and the second shot bounced off his left skate a couple seconds later. Bobrovsky then made a fantastic blocker save at 9:05 of the first to thwart a 3-on-1 for Philadelphia, turning away a wrist shot by Flyers captain Claude Giroux.
"I felt pretty good," Bobrovsky said. "I saw the puck really well, so I thought I [worked] hard … and, well, we got one point still and we move on."
He wasn't done, though.
In the second, Bobrovsky denied Giroux again off a breakaway that could've put the Flyers up 2-0 with 5:04 left, and he stonewalled Jakub Voracek on a power play in the third, keeping it 1-0.
"Especially in the third period," Tortorella said. "[He] made some key saves in the third period and gave us a chance to get a point."

III: SPECIAL DELIVERY
All it took to change the game and the atmosphere inside the building was one backhanded whack at a loose puck late in the third period.
Atkinson took that whack, sending the puck skipping off the top of Neuvirth's right pad into the net to tie it, 1-1 late in the third. Just that quickly, everything changed for the Blue Jackets - who until that point had outshot another opponent to no avail.
"I think I've been playing pretty good hockey, as of late," Atkinson said. "I've been all over the puck. I was just happy to tie it up, really. I don't care about anything else except trying to get points in the bin."
It was Atkinson's 10th goal of the season, and the defensemen on the ice for Columbus each got the assists. David Savard got the primary assist, his first since Dec. 27, and Dean Kukan got the secondary helper for his second point and assist in as many games.
Needless to say, it was a gigantic goal.

IV: MORE SHOTS, MORE FRUSTRATION
They didn't pile up 50-plus shots, or even reach 40 for that matter, but the Blue Jackets still outshot their eighth straight opponent. They also fell to 2-5-1 in those eight games, as a lack of scoring touch continues to vex them.
Once again, they had a number of close calls and were denied by a couple of great saves by the opposing goalie. It was nearly the second shutout of the season for Neuvirth, who'd allowed at least four goals in three of his previous four starts.
Neuvirth is now the Flyers' No. 1 goalie, filling in while Brian Elliott is out five-to-six weeks with a lower-body injury.

V: TOUGH NIGHT
Fourth-line center Lukas Sedlak had a frustrating game, with missed scoring opportunities and a tough-luck boarding penalty called on him.
The scoring opportunities happened late in the first and near the mid-point in the second, and all three were close calls.
In the first, he came down on a 2-on-1 with Artemi Panarin that looked promising, as Panarin ripped a hard wrist shot that caused a juicy rebound to pop off Neuvirth's body. Sedlak got to it and tapped it toward the net out of mid-air. The puck clanged off the left goal post with 3:48 left in the period, keeping the game scoreless.
In the second, Sedlak got a feed in the low slot from Matt Calvert at 8:08 and slid a quick snap shot toward the left side of the net. Neuvirth made a great save with his right skate, but the rebound came right back to Sedlak for another opportunity. His second shot slid wide of the right post with Neuvirth out of position.
The penalty happened five minutes later, when Sedlak went to check Dale Weise. He pushed Weise in the back, lost his balance fell into the Flyers' forward near the boards. Weise took exception, got up and pushed Sedlak to the ice before linesman Jonny Murray stepped in to separate them.
Murray then dragged Sedlak along the boards while still on his knees, trying to keep him away from Weise, who got a roughing minor. Sedlak was called for boarding.
It was just one of those nights for him.
VI: BJORKSTRAND KEEPS ROLLING
Oliver Bjorkstrand didn't score a goal, but had an NHL career-high eight of the Blue Jackets' 36 shots and took nine shot attempts. Five of those shots accounted for nearly half of the 11 shots in the first period for Columbus.
Tortorella has praised Bjorkstrand's play away from the puck of late, and said the slightly-built Danish forward was one of the only Blue Jackets who stuck to the strategy of peppering the net.
"He's played well," Tortorella said. "He's checked well, he's worked harder on the puck, the puck's following him around and he has that shot mentality. 'Bjorky' had the right mindset of just keep banging away and keep putting pucks on the net."
VII: THIS AND THAT
Zach Werenski had a tough night too, with some turnovers in the first period that led to scoring chances for the Flyers. The second-year defenseman was also credited with two takeaways, had two shots, five attempts and played 27:16 - which is the second-most he's ever played in an NHL regular-season game. … The Blue Jackets had won 11 straight games against the Flyers at Nationwide Arena, dating to Dec. 27, 2008. ... Jussi Jokinen played just 56 seconds on four shifts in the first period but wound up logging 7:03 while playing on a fourth line that played about seven minutes. … According to naturalstattrick.com, the Blue Jackets had more 5-on-5 scoring chances overall (32-25), but the Flyers had the slight edge in high-danger chances (11-10). ... This was the first loss in overtime for Columbus, which had been 6-0-0 in games that ended in 3-on-3 OT and 6-0-4 in shootouts. ... The Blue Jackets have 319 shots on goal in their past seven games, which is the most for any seven-game span in franchise history. The previous high was 286 on Nov. 21 to Dec. 3, 2016. ... Bobrovsky is now 9-2-1 all-time against Philadelphia, his first NHL team.
VIII: NEXT UP
The Blue Jackets will hold a practice Saturday at noon at the OhioHealth Ice Haus, which will be open to the public. It will be a chance to regroup and get ready for the rival Pittsburgh Penguins, who've won the first two games of the season series beyond regulation time at PPG Paints Arena.
It will be Pittsburgh's first trip to Columbus since a first-round series of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Blue Jackets. The Penguins are second in the Metro standings with 70 points and are 8-1-1 in their past 10 games.