Columbus Blue Jackets vs Pittsburgh Penguins: Penguins to win 4th game in a row

Pittsburgh lost to Columbus in the last two away matches. Will Mike Sullivan's team be able to get a win on such a tough road trip? Our prediction: now the Penguins will be closer to success!

Columbus has a good regular season by its standards, but it will be extremely difficult for them to seriously fight for the playoffs. In the middle of January, the Jackets started to show very uneven results, winning and losing: they beat Carolina and Philadelphia 6-0 and 2-1, respectively, but lost to Florida 2-9. Prior to that stretch, the Blues were losing significantly more often than they were winning, which is why they are struggling right now. At the moment, Brad Larsen's team sits 10th in the Eastern Conference standings, well behind the coveted top eight from the Cup.

Pittsburgh continues to improve its standings. The Penguins had a very disappointing debut in the regular season, but they had serious personnel problems. Now that all the leaders are back on the court, Mike Sullivan's team is in great form and is beating just about everyone. In the last 16 matches, they managed to gain 14 wins and two losses, both times they lost to the teams from the West which are not their direct rivals. Such a powerful spurt allowed the Pennsylvanian club to climb up to fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings, only six points behind the leader.

The opponents have faced each other 42 times in the official NHL matches. The Jackets enjoyed 14 wins, while the Penguins were stronger in 28 matches. The Pennsylvanian side also leads in goal difference, 139-113. The last time the opponents met was in the 2019/20 season when the Pittsburgh players celebrated the victory both times, 7-2 and 1-0 and the Columbia winning once, 5-2.

Pittsburgh is one of the best teams in the NHL right now. Since December, Mike Sullivan's team has been in great form, allowing them to fight for the lead in the East, winning 14 of their last 16 games. Columbus' position is noticeably more modest. It'll be hard to fight even for the Cup eight. In addition, now they are in a win-to-loss cycle and the day before they beat Philadelphia. As a result, a bet on Pittsburgh's victory with odds of about 1.75 seems like a great option.

Kasperi Kapanen returned to Pittsburgh before last season, where he immediately became one of the key players. And in the current regular season, he is trying not to lose that title, and decent statistics help him in that. 38 matches saw the Finnish forward score 23 points (8 goals + 15 assists). The day before, the Suomi representative was moved to the second line to Evgeny Malkin, where he looked very good. With that in mind, Kaspari Kapanen's Total Over (0.5) at odds near 4.00 would seem to be a good bet.

Pittsburgh lately not only beats everyone in a row but also plays very funny hockey. The previous nine meetings featuring the Penguins saw a total of 68 goals scored (7.56 average per game), which is a very solid figure by NHL standards. Columbus also eschewed defensive hockey this season, which is why they had 109 goals against (7.27 average per game) in their previous 15 games as well. In this situation, it is worth looking at the bet on Total Over (6.5) at odds of about 1.90.