Boston Bruins vs. Columbus Blue Jackets: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 10/28/2022

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH

Where to watch: Bally Sports Ohio, NHL Network, NESN

DraftKings: Bruins -150, Blue Jackets +130

FanDuel: Bruins -154, Blue Jackets +128

BetMGM: Bruins -175, Blue Jackets +145

Caesars: Bruins -160, Blue Jackets +135

Bruins: 7-1-0 (14 points)

Blue Jackets: 3-5-0 (6 points)

Bruins: won 5-1 vs. Red Wings on Thursday

Blue Jackets: lost 6-3 vs. Coyotes on Oct. 25

Brad Marchand is back and the Boston Bruins have not missed a beat. The Bruins’ star, fresh off back from hip surgery, had two goals and an assist in his return for the Bruins in a 5-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday. Now, the Bruins will play the second leg of a back-to-back with traveling to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets on Friday.

The 34-year-old Marchand was just the cherry on top for the Bruins’ 7-1-0 start to the season in the first year under new coach Jim Montgomery. David Pastrnak and Craig Smith had a goal – Pastrnak had two assists to go with his night – as the Bruins also got a strong (and the best) effort from Jeremy Swayman this year with 28 saves. The night, however, belonged to Marchand who didn’t appear to miss a beat.

“He’s a world-class player. It’s amazing how he comes up with pucks. The puck is between three bodies and he’s like the Tasmanian devil, twirling all around,” Montgomery said about Marchand. “It’s amazing. He tracks and fights for it and bite your leg off for it. That’s why we love him.”

The Bruins won’t force Marchand back into an everyday type of capacity, starting with back-to-backs with this one on Friday. Marchand was initially told that he would be back at the end of November, but he made it possible to get back earlier. Nothing better for one of the three best teams in hockey right now to get that kind of production with the superstar returning.

“We’ve been very careful throughout this progression,” Marchand said. “Definitely felt more comfortable as the game progressed.”

The Blue Jackets are coming into this game with a 3-5-0 record and having lost two of their last three. It’s been a growing pains process for Columbus as it tries to quickly adapt to winning expectations, primarily because Johnny Gaudreau has accelerated the timeline with how good Columbus needs to be. But there will be lapses like there were on Oct. 25, when the Blue Jackets lost 6-3 to the Arizona Coyotes at home.

Gaudreau did score his fifth goal in eight games with his new team, and Kent Johnson added his third but that was well into the third period when Arizona was down 5-0 early on. Backup goalie Daniil Tarasov gave up four goals on 12 shots before he was pulled. Elvis Merzlikins gave up just one on six shots in relief, but Columbus can’t rely on Elvis every night. They need some consistent backup goaltending.

“We didn’t have juice all night for whatever reason in the game,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “It really was from the goalie out. ... It just had a bad vibe to it kind of the whole game.”

The Blue Jackets are going to come along at some point, now that Patrik Laine is healthy and back in the lineup on a consistent basis. This team is going to go as far as Gaudreau and Laine ultimately take them. Even if one is out for an extended period of time, it’s going to hurt in a big way. If they can stay healthy and get good goaltending from Elvis, they’re going to hang around in these games. But the problem with facing Boston is this dynamic goaltending tandem. And getting the strong performance from Swayman on Thursday allows the Bruins to go with the red-hot Linus Ullmark for this game. If Ullmark keeps this progression and if the Bruins have their legs under them, this could be long day for the CBJ. Bruins win 4-2

Bruins are 44-31 after winning four or five of their last six games over the last three years.

Bruins are 10-4 on Friday games the last three years.

Blue Jackets are 14-20 after playing a non-conference game the last three years.

Blue Jackets are 20-17 off a home loss the last three years.

Bruins:

A.J. Greer -- Patrice Bergeron -- Jake DeBrusk

Taylor Hall -- David Krejci -- David Pastrnak

Trent Frederic -- Charlie Coyle -- Pavel Zacha

Nick Foligno -- Tomas Nosek -- Craig Smith

Hampus Lindholm -- Matt Grzelcyk

Derek Forbort -- Connor Clifton

Jakub Zboril -- Brandon Carlo

Linus Ullmark

Blue Jackets:

Johnny Gaudreau -- Boone Jenner -- Patrik Laine

Kent Johnson -- Jack Roslovic -- Jakub Voracek

Gustav Nyquist -- Cole Sillinger -- Yegor Chinakhov

Eric Robinson -- Sean Kuraly -- Mathieu Olivier

Zach Werenski -- Andrew Peeke

Vladislav Gavrikov -- Adam Boqvist

Jake Bean -- Erik Gudbranson

Elvis Merzlikins

Points: David Pastrnak -- 15

Goals: David Pastrnak -- 6

Assists: David Pastrnak -- 9

Goalie: Linus Ullmark -- 5-0-0, 2.01 GAA, .936 SV%

Points: Johnny Gaudreau -- 8

Goals: Johnny Gaudreau -- 5

Assists: Jakub Voracek -- 5

Goalie: Elvis Merzlikins -- 2-2-0, 4.06 GAA, .863 SV%