Carolina Hurricanes at Columbus Blue Jackets - 3/25/21 NHL Picks and Prediction
Photo by James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
Columbus Blue Jackets (13-13-7) vs Carolina Hurricanes (21-7-3)
Game Info: Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 7:00 pm (Nationwide Arena)
Betting Odds: Columbus Blue Jackets +148 / Carolina Hurricanes -162 --- Over/Under: 5.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Carolina Hurricanes and the Columbus Blue Jackets meet in NHL action from the Nationwide Arena on Thursday night.
The Carolina Hurricanes will look to add to their 3-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in their last matchup. Sebastian Aho leads the Hurricanes in scoring with 30 points including a team-high 13 goals and 17 assists while Dougie Hamilton has 25 points with a team-high 22 assists and 95 shots on goal. Vincent Trocheck has 24 shots on goal with 13 goals of his own while Jordan Staal’s got 23 points with 10 goals and 13 assists and Nino Niederreiter has 13 goals as well this season. As a team, Carolina is averaging 3.2 goals on 31.5 shots per game with a 30.6% success rate on the power play which is the best in the league. On defense, the ‘Canes are giving up 2.5 goals against on 28.7 shots per game with an 82.9% success rate on the PK this season.
The Columbus Blue Jackets will look to bounce back from their shutout loss to Carolina last time out. Oliver Bjorkstrand leads the Jackets in scoring with 27 points including team-highs of 11 goals and 16 assists while Cam Atkinson comes in with 21 points including 11 goals this season. Jack Roslovic has 20 points with 15 assists while Seth Jones has 17 points with 13 assists. As a team, Columbus is averaging 2.5 goals on 28.7 shots per game with a 14.8% success rate on the power play while allowing 3.1 goals on 31.2 shots against per game with a 74% success rate on the penalty kill this season.
Carolina is 5-1 in their last 6 road games and 9-3 in their last 12 games overall while the under is 5-0-2 in their last 7 games against a team with a losing record. Columbus is 1-4 in their last 5 games overall and 4-9 in their last 13 games as an underdog while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Carolina is 3-7 in the last 10 meetings between these two teams.
I think you could make a case for either side here as Carolina’s the better team side-by-side, while Columbus has had the bulk of the success in recent meetings. With that said, these two teams have met three times in the last week or so, and the road team’s won all three meetings. I just think everything is pointing in Carolina’s direction here, so I’ll back the road team in this spot.
Chris’s Pick Carolina -161
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
Mitch's Take...
