The Washington Capitals play a weekend back to back with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets see each other twice in two days with the first stop of the back to back coming today at 12:30 p.m. from Nationwide Arena. You can catch the game on ABC and ESPN plus or listen to the game on 106.7 The Fan and Caps Radio 24/7.
The Capitals vs Blue Jackets betting odds on Caesars have the Capitals as 1.5 goal favorites on the roadWashington has -130 moneyline odds while the Blue Jackets are the underdog at +110. Today's over/under is set for 6.5 goals.
#3 Play a full 60
The other night against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Caps showed up in just the second period. That's not going to win a lot of hockey games when the games get more important. The Caps had a dismal first period but a strong second period where they scored three times to take a 4-2 lead into the third.
The Caps lost hold of that two goal lead but went on to win in the shootout in a game that honored Alex Ovechkin for reaching the 895 milestone. The final score was 5-4 and it turned out to be the Caps 50th win of the season.
#2 Don't fall for the trap game
The Blue Jackets are on the verge of elimination this weekend so they'll be playing playoff hockey already. They already had adversity losing Johnny Gaudreau to a tragic death before the season started. Despite this, they fought for a playoff spot for much of the season but have been on a recent slide.
After a 5-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings on March 1, the Blue Jackets were in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings which was two points better than the eighth place Detroit Red Wings and four points in front of the ninth place Ottawa Senators.
While the Blue Jackets enter with a two game win streak, they are 6-11-1 since March 1. The Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa heated up since then and moved past them in the standings.
#1 Win the special teams battle
The Caps are 12th in the NHL in power play success with a 23.7 percent power play percentage. The Blue Jackets are 22nd with a success rate of 19.7 percent. Meanwhile over on the penalty kill, the Caps rank sixth with a rate of 81.6 percent. The Blue Jackets are 25th at 76.1 percent.
On paper, this looks like a matchup the Capitals can win. What makes this tricky is that they'll be playing a desprate team and they see them two days in a row.
