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Edgar Chaput
Ottawa Senators vs. Columbus Blue Jackets Prediction, NHL Odds
Neither club could muster much offence in their respective home games on Saturday, although the Blue Jackets’ troubles were more painful.
The NHL odds have pinned the Senators as -198 favourites on the moneyline and +126 on the puckline. The total has been calculated at 6.5.
Senators vs. Blue Jackets NHL Betting Odds
Tonight’s contest is both the final of three scheduled contests between the Ontario and Ohio-based franchises and the only one to be played in Columbus. D.J. Smith’s Sens took care of business 4-0 at home just after the New Year and again 5-2 in early March. Including last season, Ottawa rides a three-game winning streak over the Metropolitan Division club.
The Senators have cooled off a bit after scorching teams in late February and early March. They’re only 4-5-1 in the previous 10 outings. Some of those losses were at the tail end of a five-game skid, but even since then, 4-3 is fine but nothing to write home about. Ottawa is also 4-3 ATS in its last seven contests.
Columbus is coming off one of the worst weeks any NHL team could possibily experience. Played four, and lost four. But that’s not all. The Blue Jackets were outscored 23-5 in the process. That’s incredible. The strangest stat? They were buzz sawed by teams like Montreal and Florida (8-2 and 7-0), yet pushed the President’s Trophy-winning Boston Bruins to overtime in their rink. When things are bad in Columbus, they’re awful.
Ottawa Senators
The Senators carried solid momentum into Saturday evening’s tilt against the arch-rival Toronto Maple Leafs. It had been an all-around successful week – save for couple bad injuries – and the opportunity beckoned to exact revenge on the Leafs for a close loss two weeks prior.
Unfortunately for them and the home fans, Ottawa was simply never up to measure. Granted, they sent 31 shots towards Leaf netminder Ilya Samsonov and on a few occasions he was called upon to make some big saves, but overall the Sens felt like the second-best team on the ice. After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, Toronto struck thrice thanks to Michael Bunting, William Nylander and Radim Zohorna. Bunting’s opener was the end result of a fairly silly attempt by a Senator defender to swat the puck out of their zone with his gloves, but all it did was fall to Bunting’s stick, who was happy to oblige. Toronto even wrung the puck off the post a couple of times, so the 3-0 final score flattered the losers to a degree.
Derick Brassard, who couldn’t finish Thursday’s game against the Flyers is officially out for the remainder of the season due to a broken fibula.
Columbus Blue Jackets
If losing 3-0 at home to a hated rival is bad, try 7-0 – albeit not against a rival – in a contest that looks as if everything that can go wrong does.
However bad the Senators felt after their bout with Toronto, one can only imagine what Brad Larson and his men felt after getting thwacked by the Panthers in front of their fans Saturday. This one had all the markings of a late regular season game involving a team with playoff aspirations (Florida) and another who wouldn’t mind getting that number one overall draft pick (Columbus). Outshot 48-21, 0-for-4 on the power play, the Blue Jackets were never really in this one. It took some time for the Panthers to get going. For such a lopsided final score, the first goal from Sam Reinhart (29th) came with over 12 minutes played in the first. The Carter Verhaeghe (37th) one-timer five minutes later set the tone. He would score two more to complete a hat trick. We shall see if the Blue Jackets have anything left in the tank to pick themselves up barely 24 hours later.
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