Good day to all the readers. Being that it is the all-star game this weekend I thought I would put together a list of the top scoring lines at even strength to this point of the season. I am also going to use Dobber’s new player vs. opponent tool to have a look at the matchups for the top lines this week.

Rank	Team	Line	Points
1	BOS	BERGERON,PATRICE – MARCHAND,BRAD – PASTRNAK,DAVID	77
2	EDM	DRAISAITL,LEON – KASSIAN,ZACK – MCDAVID,CONNOR	65
3	FLA	BARKOV,ALEKSANDER – DADONOV,EVGENII – HUBERDEAU,JONATHAN	65
4	WPG	CONNOR,KYLE – LAINE,PATRIK – SCHEIFELE,MARK	61
5	MTL	DANAULT,PHILLIP – GALLAGHER,BRENDAN – TATAR,TOMAS	54
6	BUF	EICHEL,JACK – OLOFSSON,VICTOR – REINHART,SAM	50
7	VAN	BOESER,BROCK – MILLER,J.T. – PETTERSSON,ELIAS	48
8	PIT	GUENTZEL,JAKE – MALKIN,EVGENI – RUST,BRYAN	45
9	VGK	KARLSSON,WILLIAM – MARCHESSAULT,JONATHAN – SMITH,REILLY	45
10	NYR	FAST,JESPER – PANARIN,ARTEMI – STROME,RYAN	40
11	MIN	STAAL,ERIC – ZUCCARELLO,MATS – ZUCKER,JASON	39
12	NSH	BONINO,NICK – GRIMALDI,ROCCO – SMITH,CRAIG	39
13	COL	LANDESKOG,GABRIEL – MACKINNON,NATHAN – RANTANEN,MIKKO	38
14	N.J	COLEMAN,BLAKE – GUSEV,NIKITA – ZAJAC,TRAVIS	36
15	TOR	JOHNSSON,ANDREAS – MATTHEWS,AUSTON – NYLANDER,WILLIAM	36
16	L.A	BROWN,DUSTIN – IAFALLO,ALEX – KOPITAR,ANZE	35
17	T.B	KUCHEROV,NIKITA – POINT,BRAYDEN – STAMKOS,STEVEN	34
18	WSH	BACKSTROM,NICKLAS – OVECHKIN,ALEX – WILSON,TOM	34
19	CAR	DZINGEL,RYAN – HAULA,ERIK – NECAS,MARTIN	32
20	DET	BERTUZZI,TYLER – LARKIN,DYLAN – MANTHA,ANTHONY	31
21	CHI	DEBRINCAT,ALEX – KANE,PATRICK – STROME,DYLAN	27
22	NYI	BARZAL,MATHEW – EBERLE,JORDAN – LEE,ANDERS	24
23	ANA	HENRIQUE,ADAM – RAKELL,RICKARD – SILFVERBERG,JAKOB 📢 advertisement:	22
24	CGY	GAUDREAU,JOHNNY – LINDHOLM,ELIAS – MONAHAN,SEAN	22
25	S.J	GOODROW,BARCLAY – HERTL,TOMAS – MEIER,TIMO	20
26	STL	BOZAK,TYLER – STEEN,ALEXANDER – THOMAS,ROBERT	20
27	ARI	KELLER,CLAYTON – SCHMALTZ,NICK – SODERBERG,CARL	19
28	CBJ	BJORKSTRAND,OLIVER – JENNER,BOONE – NYQUIST,GUSTAV	19
29	PHI	COUTURIER,SEAN – KONECNY,TRAVIS – LINDBLOM,OSKAR	18
30	OTT	BROWN,CONNOR – PAGEAU,JEAN-GABRIEL – PAUL,NICK	15
31	DAL	BENN,JAMIE – RADULOV,ALEXANDER – SEGUIN,TYLER	13

Boston Bruins

Patrice Bergeron – Brad Marchand – David Pastrnak

With a combined 77 points at even strength, this Bruins line is the cream of the crop. Their chemistry is unmatched by the rest of the league and it shows in their point totals. This week they have one game before the break and tonight the Bruins face-off against the Vegas Golden Knights. Against them this line has combined for a total of 14 points in five games. If you are looking to stack lines tonight this line would be a good place to start.

Patrice Bergeron

Missing nine games earlier in the season certainly didn’t slow Patrice Bergeron down. He is scoring at a point per game pace for the third season in a row. At even strength he has 13 goals and 12 assists. His shooting percentage is right at his career norm of 14.4 percent. He is winning 58.2 percent of the face-off he takes and he is starting his shifts in the offensive zone 62.7 percent of the time. Like I said last week, winning offensive face-offs will certainly help garner success in the point’s column. Of course Bergeron is taken in every league so if you don’t have him, chances are you won't pry him from his owner.

Brad Marchand

The shift disturber of the line, Marchand can do it all. He is the pest no one likes unless he is on your favourite team, or you own him in fantasy hockey. Over the last four seasons he has been excellent. This year in particular, Marchand is scoring at his highest point-per-game pace of his career at 1.30 . That puts him up there with the best players in the game. At even strength he has 17 goals and 27 assists. Marchand is also the top player on his team for drawing penalties with 31. This stat isn’t really fantasy relevant except that it puts one of the best power play units in the game out there and Marchand is a big part of it. Like his linemates, you will most likely not own him nor will you be able to purchase him on the trade market unless the player who owns him is just trying to gather draft picks for next year.

David Pastrnak

With a total of 37 goals, 21 of them coming at even strength. Pastrnak is the current goal leader in the league. Pastrnak is the player that really helped propel this line to the top of the league in scoring over the last four years. As they spend more time together they just continue to get better every year. Pastrnak is on pace for his highest points total of his career with a pace of 115 points. That should be good for a top five finish on the season and a possible Rocket Richard trophy at season's end. Pastrnak is shooting the puck more this season at almost 4 shots per game and if he continues that pace and his shooting percentage stays at about 18 percent he should finish with well over 50 goals for the season. As an owner of Pastrnak, I hope he gets 60.

Winnipeg Jets

Kyle Connor – Patrik Laine – Mark Scheifele

The Jets play two games this week as they face-off against the Carolina Hurricanes and then the Columbus Blue Jackets. Recently the Jets have changed their deployment to look a little more like this.

#1	25.80%	CONNOR,KYLE – LAINE,PATRIK – WHEELER,BLAKE
#2	22.20%	COPP,ANDREW – EHLERS,NIKOLAJ – SCHEIFELE,MARK
#3	12.20%	LOWRY,ADAM – PERREAULT,MATHIEU – ROSLOVIC,JACK
#4	10.40%	APPLETON,MASON – BOURQUE,GABRIEL – SHORE,NICHOLAS
#5	5%	APPLETON,MASON – PERREAULT,MATHIEU – ROSLOVIC,JACK

Basically they swapped Scheifele and Wheeler for one game. Since it was only one game I will stick to the line I posted above that has combined for 60 points at even strength.

Kyle Connor

On the season Connor is scoring at almost a point-per-game pace and should finish the season right around 80 points. He has scored 16 goals and recorded 19 assists at even strength. To look ahead at his games this week, Connor has only played five games against the Carolina Hurricanes and he has four points in those games. In five games against the Columbus Blue Jackets he only has two points. If you were going to use Connor in daily’s I would use him this week against the Hurricanes.

Patrik Laine

During the off-season Laine complained that he wasn’t getting top line minutes and that he wasn’t put into a great position to succeed. Well this year he has been given those top line minutes and he has taken advantage of the situation. At even strength Laine has 13 goals and 22 assists. He has become a more complete player and isn’t always thinking goal-first as his 22 assists would say. In seven career games against the Carolina Hurricanes, Laine has five goals and four assists. In the same amount of games against the Columbus Blue jackets, Laine has only one assist. Use Laine in daily’s tonight when they play the Hurricanes but I would stay far away from him tomorrow when they face the Blue Jackets.

Mark Scheifele

Scoring at a career high pace of 1.08 points per game Scheifele has certainly been successful with these linemates. On the season he has 16 goals and 21 assists at even strength. He has a shooting percentage of 20 which is a little higher than his career average but for him I imagine it is sustainable. This week’s matchups for him are quite favourable. In his last ten games against the Carolina he has scored three goals and added three assists. In his last ten games against the Columbus Blue Jacket he has fared much better than his line mates. He has three goals and six assists. If you are looking to add a player for dailies, Scheifele is your man.

Florida Panthers

Aleksander Barkov – Evgenii Dadonov – Jonathan Huberdeau

The top line for the Panthers has been dominant this year at even strength. They play one game this week and it's against the Chicago Blackhawks. Over their last ten games against the Blackhawks the players from this line have combined for 19 points. If you are looking to stream a line tonight, this trio would be a good place to start.

Aleksander Barkov

The often underappreciated Barkov is having another great season. He has nine goals and 26 assists at even strength and is clearly the setup man on this line. Over his last five games Barkov has been hot scoring eight points. He will look to continue that trend tonight against the Blackhawks. In his last ten games against them he has one goals and six assists.

Evgenii Dadonov

In his third full season with the Panthers, Dadonov has fit in quite nicely with his linemates. This season he has scored 12 goals and added 11 assists at even strength. Dadonov has been hot for quite some time now scoring 15 points over his last 15 games. He does however go into Chicago tonight where he has not been as successful. In five career games against the Blackhawks he has just two assists.

Jonathan Huberdeau

Huberdeau has been on fire over his last 16 games; over that span he has 27 points. This year he has been an assist machine, He is already up to 46 assists on the season, 26 of them being at even strength. He also has 15 even-strength goals. The puck luck is certainly going his way this year as he is shooting at a career high 16.7 percent. He will look to continue his hot streak tonight against the Blackhawks. Over his last ten games against them, he has one goal and seven assists. Like I said above, I would look to him in daily’s tonight and Huberdeau is the perfect player to build around.

Thanks for reading this week’s ‘Lining Up’

Aaron

UPCOMING GAMES

Dec 23 - 13:12	N.J	vs	NYR
Dec 23 - 14:12	TOR	vs	WPG
Dec 23 - 19:12	DET	vs	STL
Dec 23 - 19:12	CBJ	vs	MTL
Dec 23 - 19:12	BOS	vs	WSH
Dec 23 - 19:12	FLA	vs	T.B
Dec 23 - 19:12	PIT	vs	PHI
Dec 23 - 19:12	NYI	vs	BUF
Dec 23 - 20:12	NSH	vs	CAR
Dec 23 - 20:12	MIN	vs	CHI
Dec 23 - 21:12	UTA	vs	DAL
Dec 23 - 21:12	VAN	vs	S.J
Dec 23 - 22:12	VGK	vs	ANA