Washington Capitals vs Columbus Blue Jackets 12/4/21 NHL Picks, Predictions, Odds
Columbus Blue Jackets (12-9) vs. Washington Capitals (14-4-6)
December 4, 2021 7:00 pm EDT
The Line: Washington Capitals -222 / Columbus Blue Jackets +185; Over/Under: -1.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Columbus Blue Jackets and the Washington Capitals meet in NHL action from the Capital One Arena on Saturday.
The Columbus Blue Jackets will look to rebound from a 3-2 loss to Dallas in their last game. Oliver Bjorkstrand leads Columbus in scoring with 19 points including 6 goals and 13 assists while Jakub Voracek has 18 points with a team-high 17 assists. Zach Werenski has 15 points with 5 goals and 10 assists while Boone Jenner has a team-high 11 goals and Vladislav Gavrikov has a team-best +9 plus/minus rating as well this season. Elvis Merzlikins has gone 9-4 with a 2.61 GAA and a .923 save percentage this season while Joonas Korpisalo is 3-4 with a 3.95 GAA and an .885 save percentage.
The Washington Capitals will try ot bounce back from a 4-3 shootout loss to Chicago last time out. Alex Ovechkin leads the Caps in scoring with 38 points including a team-high 19 goals and 19 assists while Evgeny Kuznetsov has 28 points with a team-high 20 assists. Tom Wilson has 23 points with 8 goals and 15 assists and John Carlson’s got 22 points with 5 goals and 17 apples. Nick Jensen has a team-best +21 plus/minus rating while Dmitry Orlov isn’t far off with a +19 rating this season. Ilya Samsonov has gone 9-1-1 with a 2.52 GAA and a .915 save percentage for the Caps while Vitek Vanecek is 4-3-5 with a 2.56 GAA and a .905 save percentage.
Columbus is 2-8 in their last 10 division games and 4-1 in their last 5 games after scoring 2 goals or less in the previous game while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 games against the Eastern Conference. Washington is 4-1 in their last 5 home games and 9-4 in their last 13 games overall while the over is 6-2 in their last 8 road games.
The Blue Jackets have been one of my favorite surprises to start the year as I pegged this team to finish last but the goaltending’s been outstanding. However, the play is a lot different on the road and this Washington Capitals team is buying more and more into Alex Ovechkin’s goal chase. I think this is going to be a battle, but I look for the Caps to win on the -1.5 puck line with an empty netter here.
