Blue Jackets vs. Capitals Game 6 prediction
The Columbus Blue Jackets host the Washington Capitals for Game 6 tonight. The Caps want to close this series out by winning their fourth straight while the Jackets look to push this great series to a Game 7.
Forget everything you think you know about the playoff Washington Capitals. The Capitals have the Columbus Blue Jackets on the ropes tonight after ringing off three straight wins and taking a 3-2 series lead.
Most of us (hand up) had the Capitals dead in the water after they dropped two games at home to open this series. We’ve all seen this story play out. The Capitals look great in the regular season and choke in the playoffs. This year, most Caps fans felt the team was different, and as it turns out, they might have been right.
All it took was a goaltending change in Game 3 of this series to swing the momentum the Capitals’ way. Since the Caps ended the Philipp Grubauer experiment and went back to Braden Holtby, the team hasn’t lost. Holtby has been fantastic, posting a .940 save percentage and a 1.32 goals against average in the three games he’s been in.
The Blue Jackets aren’t losing these games by any drastic margin. They’ve been in every game, including a Game 5 overtime loss that they had plenty of chances in. The Jackets are going to have to look past losing three straight and figure out a way to get past Holtby. It’s very hard to win four straight games, but it’s even harder to lose four straight in the NHL playoffs. The Capitals need to come in to this game with a clean-slate mentality.
Artemi Panarin and the Blue Jackets will have to bring their A-game at home tonight to push this series to a Game 7. The Capitals have been in a handful of these tight, overtime-filled series’ now, so much so that it gives them a slight advantage. The Blue Jackets need to drown out all outside noise and focus on getting pucks past Holtby.
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Prediction:
The Capitals are still the Capitals, right? It wouldn’t be a true Washington collapse if they didn’t get the hopes of the entire fan base up first. The Capitals will win tonight and take this series. They’ll move on to lose to who they were meant to lose to all along, the division rival Penguins.
Look for another close game tonight. Four of the five games in this series have been decided in overtime so expect more overtime tonight. Sergei Bobrovsky and Braden Holtby will be fantastic in a 1-1 game until Ovechkin scores the game winning goal in overtime of this one, prompting one of the better celebrations we will ever witness.
Prediction: 2-1 Capitals (OT).
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