{"id":466046,"date":"2025-04-05T08:35:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T12:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=466046"},"modified":"2025-04-05T06:40:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T10:40:54","slug":"nhl-predictions-april-5-columbus-blue-jackets-toronto-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/04\/05\/nhl-predictions-april-5-columbus-blue-jackets-toronto-maple-leafs\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Predictions: April 5th Columbus Blue Jackets vs Toronto Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, Last Word on Hockey<\/em> takes a look at the games that are scheduled then offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups. Today, we are looking at the game between the Columbus Blue Jackets vs Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>. Be sure to check out more NHL Predictions as the 2024-25 season continues.<\/p>\n

NHL Predictions<\/h3>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets vs Toronto Maple Leafs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time:<\/strong> 7:00 p.m Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)<\/p>\n

TV:<\/strong> CBC, SN, FDSNOH<\/p>\n

Tonight the Columbus Blue Jackets (34-31\u20139) start an Ontario back-to-back as they face the Toronto Maple Leafs (46\u201325-4) before heading off to Ottawa. The Blue Jackets have owned the season series against Toronto this season beating them 6-2 and 5-1. Will they be able to to do that again tonight?<\/p>\n

Columbus Trying to Climb into Playoffs<\/h3>\n

The Blue Jackets have endured a difficult last ten games going 3-6-1 in that span. Their loss against the Colorado Avalanche<\/a> highlighted a concerning trend of allowing too many goals against. They have given up four or more goals in three of their last four games. Even with their young offensive firepower that makes it awfully tough to outscore your opponent. They will hope that facing a Maple Leaf team they have had success against this season can bring them another two points and get them closer to a Wild Card spot.<\/p>\n

Columbus is right behind Toronto in goals scored per game with their 3.23 and the Leafs at 3.25. Kirill Marchenko<\/a> has lead the way for the Jackets with five goals and eight points in his last five games. Zach Werenski<\/a> has five points in that span as well. Both have had success against the Leafs this year each registering three points in the two games. The Jackets will look to them to lead the way again tonight.<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs Lock in Playoff Spot<\/h3>\n

For the ninth consecutive season, the Maple Leafs are headed to the playoffs after clinching a spot be beating the Florida Panthers<\/a> 3-2 on Wednesday. Will they be more successful this time is to be determined but, there is still work to be done in the regular season. A division crown and home ice advantage is still on the line. This combined with the fact Columbus has controlled the first two matchups, should lead to the Leafs keeping their foot on the gas pedal. Two injury updates to keep an eye on. Both Jake McCabe<\/a> and David Kampf<\/a> missed practice and won\u2019t play tonight.<\/p>\n

An encouraging sign for Toronto fans has been the play of their most important players recently. William Nylander<\/a> has set a career high in goals and his linemate John Tavares<\/a> has scored in six of the Leafs last seven games, potting nine goals in that span. Not to be outdone Mitch Marner<\/a> is on a six-game point streak and captain Auston Matthews<\/a> has eight points in his last six games. One can only hope they can carry this level of play into the postseason. As history suggests, goals will be hard to come by once Game 1 hits, so, Toronto needs to improve on a penalty kill that has been leaky as of late allowing goals an inopportune times in two straight games.<\/p>\n

NHL Predictions<\/h3>\n

While chasing different goals both teams have a lot on the line tonight. Columbus relies on their offensive to lead them to victory and that won’t change tonight. They have scored 11 goals in two victories over Toronto so they will look to continuing that scoring pace tonight. On the other side, Toronto has the goal-scoring ability to match which could make for an uncharacteristically high scoring game for April. It will be up to the goalies to make that extra save that leads their team to victory. Expect the goalie matchup to be Elvis Merzlikins<\/a> versus Joseph Woll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prediction: Maple Leafs wins 5-4<\/i><\/p>\n

Prop Bets of The Night<\/h3>\n

For Columbus Adam Fantilli<\/a> recorded his first career hat trick against the Leafs last time he was in town. He is +350 as an anytime goal scorer. For the Maple Leafs Matthews has scored once in two games this season. However, he had five goals in three matchups last season. He is -110 to score tonight.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Please play responsibly, check for your local rules and age restrictions, some jurisdictions require ages 21+. Gambling\u00a0problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, Last Word on Hockey takes a look at the games that are scheduled then offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups. Today, we are looking at the game between the Columbus Blue Jackets vs Toronto Maple Leafs. Be sure to check […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5347,"featured_media":465836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,11,4547,4548,4524],"tags":[6083,6062],"class_list":["post-466046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-bluejackets","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-nhl-predictions","tag-columbus-blue-jackets-predictions","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-predictions"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466046"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466123,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466046\/revisions\/466123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}