Labatt Blue What We Learned: CBJ 1, ARI 0

Remember Sergei Bobrovsky?
Well, you should, because the reigning Vezina Trophy winning is still pretty dominant, even though he's taken a back seat of late to the Blue Jackets' top line.
Saturday night at Nationwide Arena, in the finale of their eighth back-to-back set of 17 this season, the Blue Jackets leaned on Bobrovsky, their top goalie, and he responded with a 35-save shutout to defeat the Arizona Coyotes, 1-0.
Bobrovsky also started for Columbus on Friday night in a big 5-3 road victory against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center - improving to 2-2-0 since getting a two-game hiatus Nov. 28-Dec. 2 to rest after a string of eight consecutive starts.
"Since his break that we gave him, this was his best start," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. "We come back with him [again]. I think we need to get him in a flow after giving him a few days. Goalies need to get into a flow. He looked as sharp as he has since he had those few days off."

Bobrovsky made 11 saves in the first period, 11 more in the second and 13 in the third, including three during extended shorthanded time after Artemi Panarin picked up two minor penalties in one shift.
Remember Panarin?
Of course you do, since he dominated for Columbus in these two games with a total of six assists, and all of the primary variety. After dishing out five straight to tie two franchise records Friday, the highly-skilled left wing set up the only goal Saturday - which was scored by linemate Josh Anderson just 30 seconds into the game.

It was all the goal support Bobrovsky needed for his NHL-leading fourth shutout.
His strong play in net was aided by another strong penalty-kill effort for Columbus, which finished closed the game out despite being down two skaters after the Coyotes (7-20-5) pulled goalie Antti Raanta (33 saves) to gain a 6-on-4 advantage.
"We put a lot of energy into last night's game [against New Jersey]," Tortorella said. "It was a pretty emotional, physical game. I just don't think we had much juice tonight, but you have to give [Arizona] credit. That's a fast team. So, we find a way. On a back-to-back, that second game is just about finding a way and I give our guys credit."
Here are six things we learned:
I: KICKSTARTING CAM
The murmurs started Saturday morning, when it was announced the Blue Jackets had recalled rookie forward Sonny Milano from the Cleveland Monsters. Combined with forward Cam Atkinson not playing a shift in the third period of the Jackets' win Friday, it didn't take much to hypothesize that he might be a healthy scratch Saturday night.
That's exactly what happened, as Atkinson was scratched for the first time in coach John Tortorella's tenure, which is in its third season. Atkinson, who signed a seven year, $41.125 million contract Nov. 17, hasn't had a point in the past six games - including five in a row after signing the new deal.
He also hasn't had a point in 11 of 14 games since returning from a lower-body injury that kept him out Oct. 30-Nov. 6, and has nine points (six goals, three assists) in 25 games this season - numbers that are significantly down from his typical scoring rates.
"For me, it's not a tough call," Tortorella said. "Cam's a very important guy. If we're going to have any sniff at all of having a chance to play [in the playoffs] and keep playing, he has to be a huge part of it. I know people get all jittery about it. I look at this as part of the process to getting him back."
It's not the first time Tortorella has scratched a veteran who's in a slump. He also scratched defenseman David Savard on Nov. 17 against the New York Rangers, which was also the first time Tortorella had made him a healthy scratch. Tortorella also scratched former Blue Jackets veteran forward Scott Hartnell last season.
"It's never fun to be that guy, and it sends us a message that we have to be better," Savard said. "Everybody has to play their game. If not, I think we know the message, and we can be out. I think he keeps everybody honest, and we've just got to go about our business."
It's not a pleasant experience, but neither is a draining slump that lags on too long. Ultimately, Tortorella hopes this is the kind of wake-up call that will spark a hot stretch for one of his top players.
"Do you want to go down this road? No," Tortorella said. "As I've said many times. It's easy to sit a guy out, but you've got to go through the other processes to try to help him. I think I'm helping him. You may think I'm crazy, but I do feel I'm helping Cam, and I'm going to continue to try and help him. I'll put it to you that way."

II: FIRST LINE STILL CLICKING
The Blue Jackets' season-long search for productive forward lines continues, but the one they stumbled upon three weeks ago is the good news.
The top line of Panarin, rookie center Pierre-Luc Dubois and Anderson is still effective nearly every time they go over the boards. They're either generating scoring chances or tilting the ice in their favor, in terms of possession. It's impressive considering opponents are starting to load up their defensive match-ups to stop them.
"I think they're getting checked more," Tortorella said. "I don't think [that] line was on tonight, but they still had a lot of offensive-zone pressure. It's a big reason, as we continue to try to get guys better, they have to stay strong for us right now, as we go through it."
That's because the other three lines - not to mention the power play - haven't provided consistent secondary scoring punch, which again was the case Saturday night. There was only one goal scored in this game, and it was no surprise that Anderson scored it, off assists from Panarin and Dubois.
III: JACKETS STILL KILLER ON PK
It's getting to be expected every time Columbus takes a penalty. The feeling is the Jackets will simply kill off any ensuing power plays, because that's what usually happens.
They went 4-for-4 against Arizona, and rank first the NHL in home-ice penalty-kill percentage (95.2 percent) killing off 40-of-42 at Nationwide Arena. Overall, Columbus is third in the league with an 85.7 percent success rate, and has snuffed out 34 of 36 power plays in the past 15 games (94.4 percent), since allowing three power-play goals in the third period of a 5-3 loss Nov. 6 to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
"It's offset some of our problems," Tortorella said. "It's been that good. As our power play has struggled, our penalty-killing has been that good. You hope it kind of evens the ledger out, and hopefully we'll get both of them going at the same time."
IV: DOMINATING DRAWS
The Blue Jackets' puck-possession numbers are strong, which proves there's not a strong correlation between that and winning a high percentage of face-offs. That's not always necessary to possess the puck. Regardless, it's always easier to get control of it, and dictate play, if you start with it.
Columbus did that by a significant margin in this game, which is something the Jackets haven't been able to say much this season. They entered the game ranked 29th with a 46.7 percent win percentage at the dot, but won 57 percent against the Coyotes - led by Dubois (62 percent) and Brandon Dubinsky (70 percent).
V: INTERNAL MOTIVATOR
Alex Wennberg is one of several Blue Jackets looking to raise his game to its usual standards.
After scoring a power-play goal Friday against the Devils, he's looking for his shot more from the right wing on power plays. He's also using Dubois' breakout season to help spark his own surge. Dubois, 19, is the Jackets' top center, which is a role that had belonged to Wennberg. Now, Wennberg is making his goal to surpass the rookie in a friendly internal competition.
"There's always different ways to see it," said Wennberg, who's centering the second line. "He's right here, he's playing good right now and it's awesome for him. For me, it's good [too]. He's stepping up his game, so I've got to step up my game."
VI: THE I-71 SHUFFLE
Upon his assignment to the Cleveland Monsters last Sunday, Milano was told to stay ready. The Blue Jackets assigned him there to get more playing time, and told him he was liable to be recalled at any time.
Well, any time was Saturday morning, when he got the call to come back to Columbus and rejoin the lineup against Arizona.
"There's ups and downs to both sides," said Milano, who played 8:34 at left wing on the fourth line. "Obviously, playing [for Tortorella], you get to learn a lot. I know what he wants out of me. Even if I'm not playing a lot, I get to practice with him and do meetings with him, so that always helps. But playing a lot of minutes [in Cleveland] and developing your skills always helps too. So, there's positives and negatives to both sides."
Milano was reassigned to Cleveland following the game.