Boston Bruins vs Columbus Blue Jackets 12/17/22 NHL Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Columbus Blue Jackets and the Boston Bruins meet in NHL action from the TD Garden on Saturday afternoon.

The Columbus Blue Jackets will look to rebound from a 4-1 loss to Columbus in their last game. Johnny Gaudreau has a team-high 31 points with 10 goals and 21 assists while Boone Jenner has 21 points with a team-high 10 goals. Elvis Merzlikins has gone 4-8 with a 4.68 GAA and an .864 save percentage while Joonas Korpisalo is 4-5-1 with a 3.51 GAA and a .905 save percentage and Daniil Tarasov has gone 2-4-1 with a 3.14 GAA and an .910 save percentage in goal for Columbus this year.

The Boston Bruins will look to rebound from a 3-2 shootout loss to Los Angeles in their last outing. David Pastrnak has 40 points with team-highs of 19 goals and 21 assists while Patrice Bergeron’s also got 22 points with 10 goals and 12 assists. Brad Marchand has 22 points with 9 goals and 13 assists while Taylor Hall and Jake DeBrusk each have 23 points with Hall logging 12 goals while DeBrusk has 12 assists. Linus Ullmark’s gone 17-1-1 with a 1.83 GAA and a .938 save percentage while Jeremy Swayman’s gone 5-3-1 with a 2.80 GAA and an .897 save percentage this season.

Columbus is 0-5 in their last 5 games against the Atlantic division and 0-4 in their last 4 games when their opponent scores 2 goals or less in the previous game while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 road games. Boston is 7-0 in their last 7 games against the Metropolitan division and 55-20 in their last 75 home games while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400.

I get the case to be made for a decent sized underdog here, but I’m sticking with the Bruins here. The Bruins just by far play their best at home this season and against a Columbus team that has issues keeping the puck out of the net, I don’t see that changing here. The Blue Jackets just don’t have the horses to keep up so I’ll back Boston -1.5 to get this crazy ML price down.