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.