The Pittsburgh Penguins are on the road again as they head into Columbus to face off against a Metropolitan Division rival in the Blue Jackets. The Penguins are in second place in the Metro Division with 72 points after snapping a three-game losing streak with their low-scoring 1-0 win over the New York Rangers yesterday. The Blue Jackets find themselves just outside of the playoff race, 10 points behind the Washington Capitals. With that, it’s time to continue our NHL odds series with a Penguins-Blue Jackets prediction and pick.

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Here are the Penguin-Blue Jackets NHL Odds, Courtesy of FanDuel

NHL Odds: Penguins-Blue Jackets Odds

Pittsburgh Penguins: -1.5 (+136) (-188 ML)

Columbus Blue Jackets: +1.5 (-168) (+155 ML)

Over: 6.5 (-110)

Under: 6.5 (-110)

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Why The Penguins Can Cover The Spread/Win

The Pittsburgh Penguins finally snapped a losing streak yesterday against a very good New York Rangers team, overtaking them by one point to get in 2nd place. They'll look to try and pull a little further away from them with another win and two points tonight. For that to happen, their offense is going to have to put more pucks in the back of the net on a nightly basis instead of their below league average of 7.2 shooting percentage, but at least they're getting shots on net to begin with.

The Penguins have mainly been reliant on star goaltender Tristan Jarry, but since he played yesterday, it's more than likely that backup Casey DeSmith will get the start tonight. He tends to be pretty inconsistent as he's allowing 3.08 goals per game with a .899 save percentage to his record. Hopefully he can rely on his teammates to help score goals and get him a win tonight against the Jackets.

Why The Blue Jackets Can Cover The Spread/Win

The Columbus Blue Jackets were on a four-game win streak (including wins against the Panthers and Maple Leafs) before finally being silenced on Friday with a 4-0 shutout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Besides being shut out, their offense has been hot lately as the Jackets are no strangers to putting pucks in the net, with 24 total goals over the span of their four-game winning streak (coming out to an average of six goals per game). Starting goaltender Elvis Merzlikins is off of the injury list and back to action tonight as he is expected to defend the home crease tonight. He's averaging 3.42 goals against per game with a .903 save percentage. He'll look to come back strong against a powerful Penguins team.

Final Penguins-Blue Jackets Prediction & Pick

Both teams are playing tonight's game with below-average goaltending and both teams also have very strong offenses. The Penguins are overall a better team, and if the odds weren't so high, I would probably take them to win. However, Columbus has been sneaking under the radar lately with their offensive play and I think have a very good chance of winning this game. I like the odds for them to cover the spread better than I do for the Penguins to win straight-up, so I'm going to take the Jackets +1.5 as the home underdogs. If you're feeling frisky, don't be scared to throw a unit at the over too, as both starting goaltenders are well below-average and could easily let in a big number of total goals tonight.

Final Penguins-Blue Jackets Prediction and Pick: Blue Jackets +1.5 (-168) and Over 6.5 (-110)