Washington Capitals vs Columbus Blue Jackets Prediction: Expect a win for the home team

Prediction for the NHL Washington Capitals vs Columbus Blue Jackets match, which will take place on March 22. Check the team conditions and choose several betting options.

Washington risks missing the Cup battles for the first time in years. The reason for that is numerous injuries to leading players. There's less than a month until the end of the first part of the season, and the Capital still hasn't played in its fighting lineup. For example, Carl Hagelin, Connor Brown, and John Carlson remain in the infirmary. The rest are all fit but not in great shape, as the squad suffered five losses in the last seven meetings, beating only the Islanders and Buffalo 5:1 and 5:4, respectively. Washington is now only 11th in the Eastern Conference.

Columbus failed in the current regular season. It shouldn't be believed that the Jackets can clinch a spot in Cup 8; however, last season, they demonstrated outstanding hockey, combining it with decent results. You could expect to see further progress in Brad Larsen's second year in the club. Alas, none of that happened. They have become hopeless outsiders in the league, with few points to cling to. They suffered seven losses in the last eight meetings, beating only the worst team in the West, San Jose, 6:5. Columbus sits at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.

Washington is in danger of not making the playoffs at the end of the regular season, but in the upcoming battle, the Capitals have every chance to score the most important two points, which will put them back in the fight for cup eight. The fact is that their opponent will be Columbus, the main underdog in the Eastern Conference. In their last eight games, the Jackets have suffered seven losses, while in the three previous games, they had lost by a margin of at least three pucks. Peter Laviolette's wards left all three head-to-head meetings of the season behind them, so a bet on Washington's victory seems inevitable.

Columbus has already said goodbye to the chances of making the playoffs. At least one of the competitors will be hard to beat in the Eastern Conference standings, so now the Jackets are having fun on the ice, not paying any attention to the defense. All of that is reflected in the stats, which show that they've only had 59 shots on goal in their last seven meetings (8.43 average per game). So the best option for the prediction seems to be a total over 6.5 pucks, and separately we should bet on the total under 0.5 points by Tom Wilson.