Blue Jackets vs Penguins Prediction NHL Picks 3/5/24

Pittsburgh Penguins (27-24-8) vs Columbus Blue Jackets (20-30-10)

Game Info: Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at 7:00 pm (PPG Paints Arena)

Betting Odds: Pittsburgh Penguins -222 / Columbus Blue Jackets +175 --- Over/Under: 6.5

The Columbus Blue Jackets look for a win after splitting their last 10 games. The Pittsburgh Penguins are riding a 3-game losing streak. Here’s a Columbus Blue Jackets vs Pittsburgh Penguins prediction.

Columbus Blue Jackets Betting Preview

The Columbus Blue Jackets recently beat the Blackhawks and Golden Knights while losing to the Hurricanes. The Columbus Blue Jackets are averaging 2.93 goals per game and are scoring on 14.7 percent of their power play opportunities. Boone Jenner leads Columbus with 19 goals, Johnny Gaudreau has 34 assists and Kirill Marchenko has 146 shots on goal. Defensively, the Columbus Blue Jackets are allowing 3.65 goals per game and are killing 77 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Daniil Tarasov has allowed 50 goals on 447 shots faced, and Elvis Merzlikins has given up 104 goals on 1,080 shots.

Pittsburgh Penguins Betting Preview

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost to the Kraken, Flames and Oilers during this streak. The Pittsburgh Penguins are averaging 2.92 goals per game and are scoring on 14.6 percent of their power play opportunities. Sidney Crosby leads Pittsburgh with 32 goals, Erik Karlsson has 35 assists, and Jake Guentzel has 185 shots on goal. Defensively, the Pittsburgh Penguins are allowing 2.78 goals per game and are killing 82.2 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Tristan Jarry has allowed 99 goals on 1,099 shots faced, and Alex Nedelijkovic has given up 54 goals on 602 shots.

Pittsburgh Penguins Player Prop Facts

• Sidney Crosby has scored at least one goal in four of the Penguins' last five games against the Blue Jackets.
• Evgeni Malkin has recorded an assist in each of the Penguins' last eight games as favorites against Eastern Conference opponents.
• Jake Guentzel has recorded at least one point in each of his last 14 appearances with the Penguins as favorites against the Blue Jackets.
• Marcus Pettersson ranks 1st in the Metropolitan Division for Plus/Minus (+21) this season.

Columbus Blue Jackets Player Prop Facts

• Cole Sillinger has scored a goal in three of the Blue Jackets' last four games.
• Zach Werenski has recorded at least one assist in each of his last seven Tuesday night appearances against Eastern Conference opponents.
• Zach Werenski has recorded at least one point in each of his last seven Tuesday appearances against Eastern Conference opponents.
• Alexandre Texier has the most Shorthanded Goals for the Blue Jackets this season (2).

Matchup/League Facts

• The Pittsburgh Penguins rank 29th in the league in power play percentage this season (14.57%).
• The Pittsburgh Penguins rank 6th in the league in penalty kill percentage this season (82.22%).
• The Columbus Blue Jackets rank 31st in the league for goals against per game this season (3.64).
• The Columbus Blue Jackets rank 30th in the league in power play percentage this season (14.53%).

Columbus Blue Jackets vs Pittsburgh Penguins prediction

The Pittsburgh Penguins are the better team and should be favored at home. However, the Penguins have been hit or miss all year, they've lost 3 straight games and the offense has produced a combined 4 goals in their last 3 games. Even though the Penguins have won 9 of the last 10 meetings against the Blue Jackets, I'm not excited to get involved with this much juice. The Columbus Blue Jackets are coming off a nice upset win over the Golden Knights and you can argue they've played their best hockey on the road, where they're 10-14-6 this season. We're getting almost two times our money to fade the cold Penguins. I'll take a shot in the dark with the Blue Jackets.

The pick in this article is the opinion of the writer, not a PickDawgz site consensus.