The Oilers top line picked it up just in time for the fantasy hockey playoffs

Between The Lines

Oh my god! This is it, isn't it?  Indeed, the last week is upon us. For the last six months, I have been delivering those line combinations that top the week along with some sage advice. Let's do this one more time and go "Between The Lines"!

Lead Us Forwards

Jordan Eberle-Taylor Hall-Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton) — It is sad that Edmonton just was not as good as people thought this year (again). This first line was supposed to be at around a 90-95 point level in some projections and just never quite got there. Taylor Hall had nine points, Jordan Eberle had eight, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins chipped in with five. In all, they racked up 16 points while on the ice together with seven of them coming Sunday against Anaheim. At least, they finally showed up and when it counted. You just wished the production had been a bit more consistent.

Matt Cullen-Mike Fisher-Patric Hornqvist (Nashville) — Every so often Nashville finds a scoring combination that works and for a couple games last week this first line was as good as the Sidney Crosby line. They had 14 points together on the week and that included a whopping eight by Patric Hornqvist alone. "Horny" as he is called is a very effective scorer when he is healthy. The health bug has always been a question. This could be a nice springboard for next season. Their PAT was a decent 77.7% as Matt Cullen and Mike Fisher had five points each.

Derick Brassard-Benoit Pouilot-Mats Zuccarello (NY Rangers) — If you expected the Phil Kessel line then keep fishing. At the start of the season I thought Derick Brassard could be close to a 55-60 point season and though being hamstrung in the bottom six was not helpful, the forward  chipped in with three more points last week. Mats Zuccarello was the big catch with four goals and three assists. This line has solid chemistry and will be called upon frequently in the last week as the Rangers have some kinks to fix.

Defend This

Trevor Daley-Alex Goligoski (Dallas) — When you see a solid amount of ice time with the "Benneguin" duo (Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin), results will happen. Trevor Daley had a week high four points although a half dozen others produced the same. Alex Goligoski had another three points as their PAD (points as duo) was only 71.4%. Dallas is in quite the wild card dogfight with Phoenix for the final playoff spot in the West. These are the type of players you need to get you through the last week in your fantasy leagues.

James Wisniewski-Jack Johnson/Fedor Tyutin (Columbus) — Either way you slice it, James Wisniewski had four points together with both Jack Johnson and Fedor Tyutin. Columbus is in the heat of the wild card race so their fantasy players are going to be in demand. They also play four times this week so this trio is going to see lots of chances for points. Their line production was great against the Islanders as Columbus scored three times on the man advantage in a 4-0 win on Sunday. The power play will have to propel the Blue Jackets to the playoffs.

Justin Faulk-J.M. Liles (Carolina) — So John-Michael Liles suddenly became a viable defender in the NHL. With the injury to Andrej Sekera, Carolina had to do something and this is Carolina's top pairing for the balance of the season. At the very least, they can provide offense for fantasy owners starving for help. Will a guy like Liles get three assists in a game again this year? Probably not. However, they will be more serviceable than most and Justin Faulk will set up some nice line production and high frequency numbers which is always a good thing.

As always you can follow me @ChrisWasselTHW and thanks again for reading. Good luck this week as the fantasy hockey heads closer to the end. I wanted to thank Darryl Dobbs and all the fine columnists at Dobberhockey. Some of the debates we have alone are worth the price of admission. Hopefully in the last week, you weather the injuries and rise to claim victory. Thank you so much for reading and interacting with me on Twitter. On to the playoffs……

Recently from Between the Lines: