{"id":40941,"date":"2025-11-16T00:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T00:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/40941\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T00:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T00:58:10","slug":"rangers-vs-blue-jackets-prediction-nhl-odds-picks-best-bet-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/40941\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers vs. Blue Jackets prediction: NHL odds, picks, best bet Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\tGambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our links. Read our editorial standards<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember when the Rangers were living a dual reality at the start of 2025-26?\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter how the next five months go for the Blueshirts, that will surely be a dialogue at some point in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Rangers exploded for four goals<\/a> in the first period of their 7-3 road win over the Lightning on Wednesday, boosting them to 8-1-1 away from MSG \u2014\u00a0their best 10-game start away from home in franchise history.<\/p>\n

Seven goals on 21 shots against an all-world netminder, enough to leap the Rangers from No. 32 overall to No. 29 in shooting percentage.<\/p>\n

Now 9-7-2, the contrast between their duff home play is comically stark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But including Monday\u2019s first home win of the season, the Rangers have buried 13 goals in two games heading into Saturday\u2019s tilt in Columbus.<\/p>\n

A big reason why the Rangers have been inconsistent is because their skill players haven\u2019t pulled their weight. But all of a sudden, Artemi Panarin has nine points and a plus-four rating in his last four games, and it is ostensibly related to a haircut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vincent Trocheck has four points in the two games he\u2019s played since returning from injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets are rolling off a pair of wins themselves, generating chances with a high-speed roster powered by Zach Werenski\u2019s mobility from the backend. They pepper the opposing goaltender with a healthy 31 shots per game, but only convert at a measly nine percent rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ZachZach Werenski leads Columbus with a plus-9 rating ahead of Saturday\u2019s home game against the Rangers. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because when they recover the puck off their heavy forecheck system, Werenski and the blue liners funnel lots of pucks to the net. That in addition to a young forward core that doesn\u2019t drive the middle with a lot of consistency makes the Jackets a top-five overall team in low danger shots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That could spell problems against a Rangers club that has given the puck away the second fewest times in the NHL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Igor Shesterkin has stopped 97 percent of low danger shots against him per MoneyPuck.<\/p>\n

On the other end, Jet Greaves\u2019 consistency still remains a concern as he splits time with Elvis Merzlinkins and sports a 3.00 GAA and .897 SV%. Greaves is an athletic goalie, but some positioning lapses in the crease have led to mistakes given Columbus yields high shot volumes.<\/p>\n

Betting on the NHL? <\/p>\n

Although they\u2019ve contended fairly at 5-on-5, their sputtering power play makes the Rangers\u2019 recent woes look palatable, ranking as one of the four less efficient teams than them. The Rangers\u2019 81 percent effectiveness on the penalty kill should only compound those issues.<\/p>\n

Columbus hasn\u2019t shown enough resilience to give the road Rangers a price this fair, so we might as well back the splits.<\/p>\n

THE PLAY: Rangers (-115, BetMGM<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Why Trust New York Post Betting<\/p>\n

Sean Treppedi handicaps the NFL, NHL, MLB and college football for the New York Post. He primarily focuses on picks that reflect market value while tracking trends to mitigate risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6112,16788,9,24,55,54,541,539,8195,56,319,6115,7454],"class_list":["post-40941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-betting","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-betting","tag-ny","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting","tag-sports-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}