Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Ottawa Senators - 12/14/19 NHL Picks, Odds, and Prediction

Game: Columbus Blue Jackets vs Ottawa Senators

Date: Saturday, December 14, 2019

Location: Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, ON

TV: CBC

Odds/Point Spread: Blue Jackets (-104) Senators (-106)

Total/Over-Under: 6

Canadian Tire Centre is the venue where Anders Nilsson and the Ottawa Senators (13-17-2, 7th in the Atlantic Division) will play the Columbus Blue Jackets (12-14-5, 7th in the Metropolitan Division) on Saturday. The Senators open this contest at -106 while the Blue Jackets are priced at -104. The O/U is set at 6. The Blue Jackets cover 38.7% of the time, having gone 12-19 SU. Ottawa is covering 40.6% of the time, going 13-19 straight up.

The Columbus Blue Jackets step onto the ice with a record of 12 wins and 14 losses, putting them at 7th in the Metropolitan Division. Thus far in the season, they have scored a total of 76 goals which is 14th in the conference and 29th in the NHL. Their goal differential is -17, putting them at 27th in the NHL. The Blue Jackets currently have a total of 29 pts, which is 27th in the NHL and 13th in the Eastern Conference. When discussing shots at the opposing goalie, they currently have a total of 1,032 which is 8th in the Eastern Conference and 12th in the NHL. As a group, Columbus currently has a total of 485 hits which means they are averaging 15.6 per contest. They currently have a total of 362 blocks for the season. Protecting the net for Columbus is Joonas Korpisalo from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is 25 years old and has racked up 1,406 mins defending the net this year. Korpisalo is surrendering an average of 2.73 goals per game which has him ranking 15th among Eastern Conference goaltenders and 28th in the NHL among goalies. During this season, he's given up 64 goals. He holds a save percentage of .906 which has him ranking 19th among Eastern Conference goaltenders.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets will look to clean up some issues after taking a 1 - 0 defeat against the Pittsburgh Penguins their last time out. The Blue Jackets offense left a lot to be desired in this loss. For this outing, they earned a goal on 0 out of the 17 shots they put on goal. Moreover, they had 1 power play opportunity but weren't able to score. Columbus had a total of 6 penalty minutes in this matchup. The Corsi for the Blue Jackets was 31 and the Corsi against at even strength was 44 which earned them a Corsi percentage of 41.3%. Their Fenwick sat at 19 and the Fenwick against sat at 29, giving them a Fenwick percentage of 39.6%. They took 19 face-off wins at even strength and lost 18 of the face-offs. The offensive zone starts for them came in at 57.1% and they had a PDO of 100.0 in this game. In terms of their opponent's stats, the Pittsburgh Penguins tallied a total of 32 shots. They had a total of 2 minutes in the box and they earned a total of 3 power play chances.

The Senators will be the team across the ice and for the season they have 13 wins and 17 defeats. When discussing goal differential, they sit 13th in the Eastern Conference and 25th in the NHL with -13. They currently have a total of 86 goals for the season which has them ranked at 13th in the conference. Ottawa has a save % as a team of .904 which has them sitting 19th in the NHL, which tells us scoring chances could present themselves. They have a shooting percentage of 8.9% ranking them 13th in the Eastern Conference. In net for Ottawa is Anders Nilsson who is having a tough campaign by surrendering 3.03 GAA and that places him 23rd among Eastern Conference goaltenders and 45th in the NHL among goaltenders. In the 971 minutes he's been on the ice, he has given up 49 goals. He has a save % of .912, which puts him at 14th among Eastern Conference goaltenders and 30th in the NHL among goaltenders.

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The Ottawa Senators opposed the Montreal Canadiens in a matchup where the Senators ended up taking the loss by a score of 3 - 2. For this game, Ottawa earned a 54.4% Corsi rating. That percentage was had by having a Corsi of 37 and their opponent having a Corsi of 31. They earned a Fenwick percentage of 54.7% by notching a Fenwick of 29 and the Canadiens earning a 24 Fenwick. This Corsi rating tells us the kind of game Ottawa played and you can safely assume that they'll look to improve in their next outing. Their PDO at even strength was 94.4 and they had an oZS percentage of 69.0%. The Senators netted 2 goals out of the 37 shots on goal they attempted. They had 5 power play attempts in this outing and converted 1 out of those attempts. In discussing the opposition, the Canadiens had 4 power play attempts and went on to score 1 goal. Ottawa conceded 29 shots on goal and the Canadiens earned 14 minutes in the box.

Who will win tonight's hockey game against the spread?

Tony's Pick: Take Ottawa (-106)

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