San Jose at Columbus NHL Lines & Betting Analysis - February 2nd

San Jose at Columbus NHL Lines & Betting Analysis – February 2nd

Written by on February 2, 2018

The San Jose Sharks are in the midst of probably their toughest road trip of the season, a six-gamer that could determine whether San Jose has a shot at winning the Pacific Division. They make their only visit of the season to Columbus on Friday with the Jackets as NHL lines favorites.

San Jose at Columbus NHL Lines & Betting Analysis – February 2nd

When: Friday, 7 PM ET Where: Nationwide Arena, Columbus TV: NHL Center Ice, CSNCAL, FSOH Stream: NHL.tv Radio: KUFX-FM 98.5 (San Jose) / 97.1 The Fan (Columbus) Opening NHL Lines: Jackets -140, Sharks +127 (5.5)

Last Season

First meeting between the teams, with Columbus headed to San Jose on March 4. Last year, the Sharks won both. It was 3-2 in Columbus very early in the 2016-17 season. Mikkel Boedker and Joel Ward scored for an early lead and Patrick Marleau (now gone) had an empty-net power-play goal. Martin Jones made 26 saves for San Jose. Zach Werenski and Josh Anderson scored for Columbus and Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves. In San Jose, the Sharks won 3-1. Tomas Hertl had two goals and Joonas Donskoi also scored. Jones stopped 24 shots. Scott Hartnell spoiled Jones’ shutout bid with 2:50 remaining as the puck skipped off Jones’ skate and onto Hartnell’s stick and he put it in to make it 2-1. Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves.

Why Bet on San Jose?

The Sharks (26-16-8) came out of the bye with their fourth straight loss, a season high, 2-1 in a shootout in Detroit. Kevin Labanc scored the lone San Jose goal. It came at the 15:01 mark of the third period and tied the game at 1. The Sharks managed to score three goals the seven-round shootout, but that still wasn’t enough. Labanc has six goals and 27 points in 45 games this season and seven points in his last seven games. Martin Jones allowed one goal on 44 shots. Jones blanked the Red Wings in the first and second periods, but he gave up the game’s first goal early in the third frame. He then allowed the Red Wings to score four times on their seven attempts in the shootout. Jones has a 14-12-5 record with a 2.66 goals-against-average and a .911 save percentage this season. “He looked good and gave us a chance to win a game that we probably didn’t deserve,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “The Red Wings looked fresher than we did and played a smart game. Jonesy gave us a chance, but I think getting one point is a fair result.” The Sharks haven’t been the same since Joe Thornton went down with injury. Three of the Sharks four losses have come in the aftermath of Thornton suffering a right-knee injury on Jan. 23. They will be without their second-leading scorer, for “several weeks” after he sustained an injury to his right MCL last week. Thornton had scored 26 points in his last 28 games after scoring 10 in his first 19. “[Thornton’s] such an inspirational guy. What he’s done is I think he’s kind of inspired a lot of those other guys to step up,” GM Doug Wilson said. “And now they need to step up even more.”

Why Bet on Columbus?

The Jackets (27-19-4) lost their first game post-break, 3-2 in a shootout at home to Minnesota on Tuesday. Sergei Bobrovsky allowed two goals on 43 shots. Blue Jackets defenseman David Savard opened the scoring in the first period, but the Wild managed to hold a 2-1 lead in the third frame. Columbus’ Artemi Panarin tied the game in regulation before adding a tally in the shootout, but it wasn’t enough to give his team the win. On top of the two goals he allowed in regulation, Bobrovsky also gave up two goals on four Wild shootout attempts. The Russian owns a 22-15-4 record with a 2.45 goals-against-average and a .921 save percentage this season. He has just one win in his last five games. Are the Blue Jackets a safe bet? Panarin picked up a goal and an assist. The 26-year-old has 13 goals and 41 points in 50 games this season.  Panarin’s tying goal with 5:12 left in the third period Tuesday marked the fifth time in the past eight games that the Blue Jackets have posted a power-play goal. The Jackets, who were 1 for 3 with a man-advantage against the Wild, remain last in the NHL in power-play success (14.1 percent). But they’ve scored on 6 of 19 chances (31.6 percent) the past eight games. In 22 games since Dec. 8, the Jackets are 13 of 61 on power plays (21.3 percent), which ranks 12th in the NHL in that span. Out of the Blue Jackets’ 50 games this season, 16 of them have gone beyond 60 minutes. Thanks to their 12-4 record past regulation, including 6-0 in the 3-on-3 overtime and 6-4 in the shootout, the Blue Jackets have secured 28 of a possible 32 points in this regard. This success has them in a playoff spot. They haven’t allowed a single goal in overtime. The last player to score in overtime against the Blue Jackets was Noah Hanifin back on Mar 30, 2017. The last time Bobrovsky was beat in overtime was Feb 28, 2017 when Alex Galchenyuk scored.

Latest NHL Lines Trends

  • San Jose is 4-8 ATS in the last 12 games
  • San Jose is 1-4 SU in the last 5 games
  • The total went OVER in 4 of San Jose’s last 5 games
  • Columbus is 1-5 ATS in the last 6 games
  • Columbus is 2-4 SU in the last 6 games
  • The total went UNDER in 9 of Columbus’s last 11 games

Expert Prediction & NHL Betting Pick

I like the total – under 5.5 goals – better than the side here but would lean Columbus.