ASA NHL TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 5.5 Goals – Florida Panthers vs Columbus Blue Jackets, Monday at 7 PM ET – Columbus ranks among the worst in the league for goals allowed this season and the Blue Jackets have been trending the wrong direction since Zach Werenski got hurt. The defensive pairing of Seth Jones and Werenski is what made Columbus a tough team in the past but they really did not have the same level of performance this season and now, worse yet, 50% of that pairing is out for the season. Since the game in which Werenski got hurt - the final game played through in pain, the Blue Jackets have allowed an average of 4.6 goals per game and lost all 5 games. Elvis Merzlikins has been announced as the goalie for tonight and he is 2-7-1 with a 3.10 GAA in road games this season. He will face a Panthers team that is off a huge win at Tampa Bay. Beating the Lightning is the type of big victory that can leave a team flat defensively in its next game. So Columbus could surprise the Panthers early in this one and Sergei Bobrovsky, former Jackets goalie, has shown some inconsistencies when facing his prior team. Bobrovsky gets the call for Florida tonight against Columbus and he has given up at least 3 goals in 3 straight starts. The Panthers have won 4 straight home games and scored an average of 3.5 goals per game in those games. Leading scorer Aleksander Barkov is getting going again after missing some time with an injury and now has 2 goals and an assist in his last 4 games. He has 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 3 match-ups with Columbus as he has been trouble for them to contain and this is the type of match-up where not having Werenski really hurts the Blue Jackets. Both teams score well in what should be a very entertaining high-scoring match-up. Take the OVER here.