Nationwide Arena tips: Rangers look to bounce back against struggling Blue Jackets

Both sides arrive at Nationwide Arena licking wounds from midweek hidings, but the stakes feel very different on Sunday morning. The New York Rangers (6-2-0, second in the Metropolitan) copped a 1–7 shellacking at the hands of New Jersey in their last outing on Friday, while the Columbus Blue Jackets (2-3-0, seventh in the division) are coming off a 3–7 home defeat to Florida on Wednesday. The Rangers still sit inside the top three in the conference; the Blue Jackets are mired near the bottom, conceding 4.2 goals per game and winning just one game in regulation all season. Puck drop is 10:00 am AEDT, and the market has installed New York as a narrow road favourite despite that Devils disaster.

The yarn here is simple: can the visitors shake off the worst defensive performance of their campaign and rediscover the form that carried them to six wins in eight starts, or will Columbus pounce on a wounded opponent and finally string together some home ice momentum? The Rangers' offence has been electric when clicking—Alexis Lafrenière leads the charge with seven goals and three assists—but that 1–7 scoreline on Friday was a sobering reminder that even the league's best can be carved open on an off night. For Columbus, the challenge is existential: they've leaked 21 goals in five games and sit 27th overall, and another loss at home would leave them staring at a 1-2 record on their own sheet of ice.

Who claims the Metro derby?

The Rangers hold almost every statistical edge coming into this one. New York averages 3.4 goals and concedes just 3.0 across their last five outings, compared to Columbus averaging 3.0 goals for and 4.7 against over the same stretch. The visitors' power play sits at 21.74 percent for the season—five points higher than the Blue Jackets—and their penalty kill is a formidable 91.67 percent, stifling opponents with regularity. Columbus, by contrast, are killing penalties at just 61.11 percent, a leaky stat that has cost them dearly in tight contests.

Recent form tells two diverging stories. The Rangers opened October with three straight home wins—5–2 over the Islanders, 6–2 against Vancouver, and 4–1 past Tampa—before dropping road decisions to Washington (1–3) and New Jersey (1–7). That last result was ugly, but it came on the road in a divisional dust-up; before it, New York had rattled off three consecutive victories by a combined margin of 12–5. Columbus, meanwhile, has managed just one win in their last three starts—a 3–2 home triumph over Pittsburgh on 10 October—and followed it with a 3–5 road loss at St Louis and that 3–7 mauling by Florida at Nationwide.

The sides have limited recent history in the pack, so this one comes down to trajectory: a Rangers outfit that has won 75 percent of its games and boasts the third-best points percentage in the league, against a Blue Jackets squad ranked 29th and searching for answers in their own end. The head-to-head market reflects that gulf, with New York priced at 1.95 and Columbus at 1.85 on home ice. Punters backing the visitors are banking on a bounce-back performance from a side that has proven it can score in bunches; those on Columbus are hoping the Devils debacle has rattled the Rangers enough to level the playing field.

The nhl tips verdict

This is a classic spot for a road favourite to steady the ship. The Rangers have the firepower—Lafrenière, Mika Zibanejad, and Adam Fox are all clicking—and the defensive structure (0.927 save percentage) to weather Columbus' modest attack. The Blue Jackets' home form shows one win and one loss, hardly a fortress, and their inability to kill penalties or protect leads makes them vulnerable against a Rangers power play that converts better than one in five. New York's last start was a shocker, yes, but the three wins before it—by an average margin of 3.3 goals—suggest the talent and systems are still intact.

Columbus will need to find a way to score four or five just to keep pace, and their 3.0 goals-per-game average over the last five doesn't inspire confidence. The Rangers, even after the New Jersey blowout, remain a top-tier offensive unit averaging 3.4 per game across the same sample. Backing New York at 1.95 feels like the steadier play—a team with genuine cup aspirations rediscovering its rhythm against a side that has won just two of five and conceded more than four goals per outing. The price isn't huge, but the gap in class is.