Washington Capitals at Columbus Blue Jackets 3/17/22 - NHL Picks & Predictions

The Washington Capitals will end a short one game homestand Thursday night as they travel to Columbus, OH take on the Columbus Blue Jackets. Washington comes into Thursday night winners of two in a row after a 4-3 overtime win over the New York Islanders. Washington used a team offensive attack getting a goal from three different players in the game before Anthony Mantha scored his second goal of the night in the shootout to get the win for Washington.

The Washington offense has been the teams biggest strength this season averaging 3.25 goals per game on 31.2 shots as a team. Alex Ovechkin is the team’s offensive leader with 72 points in the season to go along with a team high 37 goals on 266 shots. Evgeny Kuznetsov is the top set up man with 40 assists this season including 13 on the power play.

The Columbus Blue Jackets will play their third consecutive home game Thursday night riding a two game win streak after a 6-4 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Goalie Elvis Merzlikins had his struggles in the net for Columbus but did just enough in the game allowing only four goals on 27 shots in 60 minutes to get the win for his team.

Cole Silinger led the way for the Columbus offense with a hat trick on six shots in just under 17 minutes on the ice. Oliver Bjorksrand chipped in one goal and three assists, while Jonathan Marchessaullt added one goal and one assist as well. Evgenii Dadonov and Jack Eichel pumped in one goal least round out the Columbus scoring attack.