Defend This

Roman Josi–Shea Weber (Nashville) – This duo finished with another eight points combined on the week and were in the top eight for average time on ice and among the top 15 on the power play. They play every single situation and thrive. Against the New York Rangers, they both were incredible at moving the puck and hammering shots in from close. Is there really a way to stop them? Probably not. Is there a way to slow them down? Yes there is but that requires getting in front of two freight trains that do not have an off or stop button.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson–Keith Yandle (Arizona) – If you are going to go out, you might as well go out swinging with your two best defenseman. Gradually in the last week or two, Dave Tippett has found more ways to get time for Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Keith Yandle. The results have been pretty good with a half dozen points coming between the two. Yandle had a league high six points among defensemen (tied with Josi) and Ekman-Larsson powered his way with three. The OEL had three goals on the week including another game winning goal. They are at the very least entertaining to watch although defensively, this pairing can be very much high risk/high reward.

Andrei Markov–P.K. Subban (Montreal) – There was nothing and then the weekend came and you could see it! Five points for the duo when on the ice at the time all came against Boston and New Jersey. No one should really consider that a surprise given that New Jersey had Keith Kinkaid in net and Boston's Tuukka Rask has a bad habit of just of letting P.K. Subban get points. They had two together against Boston and three versus New Jersey. It will be intriguing to see what happens this week. Will they have the "Boston Hangover"?

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As always you can follow me @ChrisWasselTHW and thanks for reading. See you next week with four more line combination and three pairings for "Between The Lines".