Columbus Blue Jackets vs Minnesota Wild Prediction NHL Picks 10/10/24

The Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild meet Thursday night in NHL action from the Xcel Energy Center. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for this game. Here’s a Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Minnesota Wild prediction.

Columbus Blue Jackets Recap

The Columbus Blue Jackets come into the 2024-25 season off of an emotional offseason. It started at the end of the 2023-24 campaign where Columbus finished 27-43-12, missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year. There were some moves made for Columbus in the offseason, but nothing could’ve prepared Columbus for the events of August 29th, where star forward Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew tragically passed away, sending shockwaves throughout the organization. It’s leaving a void in the Blue Jackets across the board, but from an on-ice perspective, Gaudreau was the most productive Blue Jacket by a mile. Zach Werenski and Kirill Marchenko were the only other Blue Jackets who had more than 40 points last year. Now injuries played a role, but still, there is going to be an expectation for Columbus to improve with the addition of guys like Sean Monahan to lead the charge. The Blue Jackets will hope for some stability in defense and especially in goaltending with Daniil Tarasov, Elvis Merzlikins, Jet Greaves and Spencer Martin all seeing playing time last year. Merzlikins and Tarasov are expected to be the 1-2 in the Columbus crease this year. The Blue Jackets will take on the Avalanche and Panthers after this one.

Why the Columbus Blue Jackets will win

• The Wild have lost four of their last seven home openers as favorites.
• The road team has won each of the Wild’s last three games.
• The underdogs have covered the puck line in each of the Blue Jackets’ last 13 games at Xcel Energy Center.
• The Wild have failed to cover the puck line in each of their last four games at Xcel Energy Center.

Minnesota Wild Recap

The Minnesota Wild come into the 2024-25 campaign trying to bounce back after finishing 39-34-9, missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2018-19 season. The Wild’s point total dropped 16 points from the season prior, the 2nd-largest regression in the NHL last year. Kirill Kaprizov will have to shoulder the load once again after finishing top-10 in goals and 11th in points last season while Marco Rossi and Joel Eriksson-Ek provide some solid scoring depth. Matt Boldy also took a huge step forward under new coach John Hynes and will be expected to build on that this season. Defensively, the Wild could use some consistency after injuries riddled this Wild defensive group, including captain Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin. Brock Faber is the rising star in that defensive group while Jacob Middleton and Zach Bogosian were brought in to provide depth at the back. In goal, Minnesota will probably run it back with Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury, but Fleury is now 40 and both he and Gustavsson had subpar 2023-24 seasons. The Wild will play against the Kraken, Jets, and Blues following this game.

Why the Minnesota Wild will win

• The Blue Jackets have lost each of their last 11 road games.
• The home team has won 13 of the Blue Jackets’ last 14 games.
• The Wild have covered the puck line in each of their last six games against Metropolitan Division opponents.
• The Blue Jackets have failed to cover the puck line in seven of their last eight road games.

Blue Jackets vs. Wild Prediction

I’m going to take a shot at Columbus here. I think that this is going to be a bit of a cathartic experience for Columbus, who will get to go out and play and have some extra motivation to do it for their fallen teammate. From an on-ice and statistical perspective, Minnesota should be favored, but this is a bit much for me considering that Fleury and Gustavsson both had sub-.900 save percentages last year. I think Columbus comes out with a purpose in the opener and gets a win here.