New York Rangers vs. Columbus Blue Jackets Betting Odds, Analysis, NHL Preview

No team may be able to top the Washington Capitals for the Metropolitan Division title this season, but the New York Rangers (36-18-1) will try to catch the Columbus Blue Jackets (35-14-5) for second place with their sixth consecutive win Monday as small road underdogs.

The Rangers are just two points behind both the Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins in the Metro heading into Monday’s NHL action, while the Capitals hold a nine-point lead over second.

Despite sitting in fourth place, New York has the second-best goal differential in the Eastern Conference at plus-44, ahead of both Columbus and Pittsburgh. The team’s five-game winning streak has certainly helped, with the Rangers outscoring opponents 18-10 during that stretch. New York has totaled exactly four goals in each of the last four, with the over cashing three times.

The under was 4-1 in the team’s previous five games on the NHL betting lines.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets have cooled off considerably since their franchise-record 16-game winning streak came to an end. They are 8-10 in their past 18 games, winning consecutive games only once during that span.

Columbus is coming off a 2-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday. In the past 10 games, three times the Blue Jackets lost their following game coming off a win. In fact, the last two wins for the Blue Jackets have both come versus the Red Wings by a combined score of 5-3, with the total going under in their previous three after six straight overs.

Columbus has won two of the three meetings with New York so far this season after dropping seven in a row in the series dating back to January 16, 2015, according to the OddsShark NHL Database.

The Blue Jackets have scored four goals or more in each of the three games between the teams this year. The total has gone over in four straight along with eight of nine—this after the Rangers held Columbus to two goals or less in all four meetings a year ago in sweeping the season series.

Surprisingly, you have to go back to 2003 to find the last time there was a shutout in this series (Columbus won 5-0).