{"id":527376,"date":"2026-03-28T11:01:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T11:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/527376\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T11:01:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T11:01:58","slug":"why-columbus-is-favored-to-win-saturdays-nhl-matchup-3-28-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/527376\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Columbus is favored to win Saturday’s NHL matchup [3\/28\/2026]"},"content":{"rendered":"

NHL action continues on Saturday at 5:00 PM ET as the San Jose Sharks take on the favored Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.<\/p>\n

Based on updated simulations, Dimers’ advanced NHL model predicts the Blue Jackets as the most likely winner of the Sharks vs. Blue Jackets<\/a> game.<\/p>\n

This article offers an expanded analysis of Saturday’s matchup, including projected goal scorers, best bets and player prop picks.<\/p>\n

Sharks vs. Blue Jackets prediction: Who will win and cover?<\/p>\n

Using trusted machine learning and data, we have simulated the result of Saturday’s NHL game between the Sharks and Blue Jackets, forming part of our NHL predictions<\/a> coverage.<\/p>\n

Our independent predictive model gives the Blue Jackets a 63% chance of beating the Sharks.<\/p>\n

According to our model, the Sharks (+1.5) have a 58% chance of covering the puck line, while the over\/under total of 6.5 goals has a 52% chance of staying under.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sharks vs. Blue Jackets odds<\/p>\n

We have sourced the best NHL odds<\/a> in America for this game, which are listed here:<\/p>\n

Bet Type
\nSharks
\nBlue Jackets<\/p>\n

Puck Line
\n+1.5 (-140)
\n-1.5 (+124)<\/p>\n

Moneyline
\n+172
\n-205<\/p>\n

Total
\no6.5 (-105)
\nu6.5 (-115)<\/p>\n

All odds are correct at the time of publication and are subject to change.<\/p>\n

Sharks vs. Blue Jackets picks and best bet<\/p>\n

After matching our probabilities against the best current odds, we can reveal our picks for each of the major markets. Plus, find our best bet for the game below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL action continues on Saturday at 5:00 PM ET as the San Jose Sharks take on the favored…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-527376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116306476768326407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}