Columbus Blue Jackets vs Washington Capitals 1/5/23 NHL Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Washington Capitals and the Columbus Blue Jackets meet in NHL action from the Nationwide Arena on Thursday night.

The Washington Capitals will look to rebound from a 5-4 OT loss to Buffalo last time out. Alex Ovechkin has a team-high 47 points with a team-high 28 goals and 19 assists. Dylan Strome also has 28 points with 20 assists while Evgeny Kuznetsov also has a team-high 28 assists as part of his 34 points up to this point in the year. Darcy Kuemper has gone 10-9-4 with a 2.58 GAA and a .916 save percentage while Charlie Lindgren is 11-4-2 with a 2.57 GAA and a .914 save percentage this season.

The Columbus Blue Jackets will hope to rebound from a 4-0 loss to Ottawa in their last game. Johnny Gaudreau has a team-high 37 points with 10 goals and 27 assists while Boone Jenner has 22 points with a team-high 11 goals. Elvis Merzlikins has gone 4-8 with a 4.68 GAA and an .864 save percentage while Joonas Korpisalo is 5-7-1 with a 3.13 GAA and a .911 save percentage and Daniil Tarasov has gone 2-8-1 with a 3.40 GAA and an .907 save percentage in goal for Columbus this year.

Washington is 6-0 in their last 6 road games and 5-1 in their last 6 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 6-0 in their last 6 division games. Columbus is 1-7 in their last 8 after scoring 2 goals or less in the previous game and 0-5 in their last 5 when their opponent allows 5 or more goals in their previous game while the under is 8-0 in their last 8 games against a team with a winning record.

I get the case to be made for either side in this game, but I’m on the over here. The Caps clearly continue to buy into Alex Ovechkin’s goal chase and this Capitals team has started to really strengthen over recent weeks. The Columbus Blue Jackets have massive issues defensively and in goal and I just don’t feel that those issues will e resolved here all of a sudden. I think we’re headed for 7-9 goals at least here so give me the over.