Atkinson piling up goals, points

PHILADELPHIA — He has had impressive streaks before, but Cam Atkinson appears to have reached an entirely new level.

His offensive roll, which is really a continuation of last year, kept right on going Tuesday in the Blue Jackets’ 9-6 loss to the Calgary Flames. He moved past Rick Nash for the most hat tricks with the team: six overall and two in eight days. And Atkinson extended his careerhigh point streak to 11 games, second only to Ryan Johansen’s 13-game streak in the 2014-15 season.

“I think I’ve definitely taken strides, but I think there’s a lot more that I can do,” Atkinson said this week. “I definitely feel confident this year.”

It shows, not just in his production but also in the way he plays. There is not an ounce of him that looks even the least bit surprised about this stretch, even though eyebrows are beginning to raise around the league.

He has always been a gifted offensive player, scoring 35 goals as recently as two seasons ago, but putting 19 goals into the net in the first 27 games of a season will draw some added attention.

This might be a good point to mention Members of the Blue Jackets ice crew pick up hats that fans threw on the ice after right wing Cam Atkinson notched his second hat trick in six days during a 9-6 loss to the Flames on Tuesday in Nationwide Arena.

the Blue Jackets’ next game, which is Thursday at the Philadelphia Flyers. The last time they were in Philly, March 15, Atkinson torched them for his fourth career NHL hat trick in a 5-3 win.

“I’ve seen him grow each and every year, I’ll put it to you that way,” said coach John Tortorella, who uses Atkinson in all situations. “I think he keeps growing, but he has to grow more if we’re going to be any type of competitive team in the real stuff in this league.” If there’s a team out

there that might naturally be a good team for goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to face after allowing eight goals on Tuesday, it’s the next one up.

Bobrovsky has dominated the Flyers, his former team, since they traded him to the Blue Jackets on June 22, 2012. Against the Flyers, he is 11-3-1 in 15 career appearances, including 1-0-0 this season, and has a 1.98 goals-against average, a .931 save percentage and two shutouts.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for Bob, because he’s going against Philly,” Tortorella said. “That’s the way you’ve got to look at

these (types) of situations, is test yourself, see if you can get through some of this stuff here.”

The Blue Jackets loaned defenseman Dean Kukan to minorleague Cleveland on a conditioning stint. The Monsters played at Lehigh Valley on Wednesday night, which is about an hour’s drive from Philadelphia. Kukan hasn’t played with the Blue Jackets since Nov. 6, sitting out 12 straight games as a healthy scratch.