Sonny Milano has won over one of the NHL's most stubborn head coaches.

The Columbus Blue Jackets rookie scored his fourth goal of the young campaign on Tuesday - an overtime winner against the Carolina Hurricanes - and while his offense has been the talk of the town, head coach John Tortorella has marveled at his play on the other side of the puck.

"Forget about offense, because we know that's going to be there," Tortorella said, according to NHL.com's Kurt Dusterberg. "I think he's been really consistent away from the puck too. He gets the puck out, and that's the most important part for this coach."

With goals in each of the Blue Jackets' first three games, Milano has matched a franchise record set by Kristian Huselius in 2010-2011. He also paces all rookies in goals and ranks second in points, but for now he can be content knowing Tortorella applauds his back-checking.