Weekly Western Leaders (to March 28th, 2021) – in bold leads the NHL

Goals – 21 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton (22 – Auston Matthews)

Assists – 41 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

Points – 62 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

PPP – 23 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

Shots on Goal – 137 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton (150 – Brady Tkachuk)

Shooting % (min 35 SOG) – 28.6 – Joonas Donskoi – Colorado

PIM – 55 – Kurtis Gabriel – San Jose (59 – Brendan Lemieux)

Best plus/minus – plus 23 – Leon Draisaitl – Edmonton (plus 24 – Joel Edmundson)

Worst plus/minus – minus 17 – Quinn Hughes – Vancouver (minus 32 – Rasmus Dahlin)

Hits – 153 – Jani Hakanpaa – Anaheim (160 – Brady Tkachuk)

Blocked shots – 100 – Alec Martinez – Vegas

FOW – 469 – Ryan O’Reilly – St. Louis

FOL – 387 – Bo Horvat – Vancouver

FO% (min 175 FO) – 61.5 – Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare – Colorado (64.1 Luke Glendening)

Giveaways – 43 – Nate Schmidt – Vancouver (61 – Thomas Chabot)

Takeaways – 34 – Mark Scheifele – Winnipeg

Highest Skater GAR (goals above replacement) – 17.6 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

Lowest Skater GAR – minus 6.1 – Jacob Larsson – Anaheim (minus 6.3 – Nikita Gusev – New Jersey)

Highest xGAR (expected goals above replacement) – 16.6 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

Lowest xGAR – minus 7.8 – Josh Morrissey – Winnipeg

Highest CF% (min 20 GP) – 62.5 – Jacob Macdonald – Colorado

Lowest CF% (min 20 GP) – 35.7 –Devin Shore – Edmonton

Highest PDO (min 20 GP) – 107.5 – Carson Soucy – Minnesota (111.1 – Daniel Sprong)

Lowest PDO (min 20 GP) – 92.6 – Sam Bennett – Calgary (90.2 –  Nikita Gusev)

Goalie wins – 20 – Philipp Grubauer – Colorado (21 – Andrei Vasilevskiy)

Save percentage (min 14 starts) – 93.0 – Philipp Grubauer (93.0 – Andrei Vasilevskiy)

Quality starts – 20 – Philipp Grubauer – Colorado

Quality start % (min 14 starts) – 71.4 – Philipp Grubauer – Colorado 

Highest Goalie GAR – 21.0 – Thatcher Demko – Vancouver (26.9 – Andrei Vasilevskiy)

Lowest Goalie GAR – minus 8.0 – Ryan Miller – Anaheim, Ville Husso – St. Louis  (minus 22.4 – Carter Hart)

Shutouts – 5 – Philipp Grubauer – Colorado

As much as shots for and chances for, measured with shots against and chances against matter, at the end of the day, it is goals for and goals against that truly measure the success of a good line. We will look at all three of these stats to determine the top lines in the West after the first half of the season.

The top even-strength (ES) lines in the West this season have been (all stats provided by Dobber's Frozen Tools):

Colorado – Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen

The line has scored 24 ES goals compared to eight against and leads the league in the differential. They also boast very healthy peripheral stats with a 63.1 SF percentage and a 64.6 CF percentage. In the past month, they haven't slowed down a bit with 16 ES goals for and a plus 12 differential and 65.6 SF percentage and a 63.6 CF percentage. This is a tough line to draw up against for any team and if healthy could propel the Avalanche very far this season.

Vegas – Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone and Chandler Stephenson

Second, in the West and the league in differential is the top line in Vegas who lead the NHL in goals for with 25 but have allowed 12 against for a differential of 13. Their 57.9 SF percentage and CF percentage of 54.0 are both very healthy but not to the dominating level of the top line in Colorado. In the past month, the line has 12 GF and seven against with an SF percentage of 56.5 and a CF percentage of 55.2 so have seen a slight fall off, but nothing to worry about.

Calgary – Elias Lindholm, Matthew Tkachuk and Dillon Dube

This Calgary line is doing well in goals with 16 and only six against, but were getting a little lucky earlier in the year as overall they are getting outshot with only a 47.9 SF percentage and a 51.4 CF percentage. The last month the line has been clicking with 11 goals for and only four against while having an SF percentage of 57.9 and a CF percentage of 55.4. Darryl Sutter made his debut on March 11th and a few changes have taken place including this line for whatever reason. The line since Sutter took over has five goals for and one against and an SF of 62.5 and CF of 59.0 but Sutter scratched Dube in the Flames last game on March 27th.

Edmonton – Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and Kailer Yamamoto/Jesse Puljujarvi

The keys to either line are Draisaitl and McDavid as the line with Yamamoto has scored 12 goals and only allowed two against while posting healthy possession numbers with a 58.0 SF percentage and a 57.5 CF percentage. With Puljujarvi the line has scored eight goals with one against with better possession numbers of 64.3 for SF and a CF of 61.4. Combined that is 20 goals for and only three against, which would be right up there with Colorado's top line. In the past two weeks, Puljujarvi has been the choice and it's a tough argument to make against him.

Minnesota – Marcus Foligno, Joel Eriksson Ek and Jordan Greenway

It is a testament to how well this line was playing before Foligno was hurt that they are still one of the best lines in the West overall. The line had ten goals for and only two against with an SF percentage of 55.8 but interestingly enough only a 47.4 CF percentage. The Wild will hope to have Foligno back after he was hurt blocking a shot on March 14th, but it has been two weeks already and one would think it will be four to six weeks if there were any broken bones involved.

Colorado – Valeri Nichushkin, Joonas Donskoi and Tyson Jost

On paper, this line probably shouldn't strike fear into the opposition, but in reality, over the past month and a bit, they are dominating. They have nine goals and only one against while posting possession numbers that can only come down. Their SF percentage overall is 72.7 and CF percentage is 68.3, while in the past two weeks their SF percentage has been 78.1.

Chicago – David Kampf, Dominik Kubalik and Brandon Hagel

Another line put together rather recently which is playing lights out in Chicago is Kampf, Kubalik and Hagel. They have yet to be scored against while scoring eight times and their SF percentage is 58.2 and CF is 57.1. The return of Kirby Dach might put a wrench in this line playing a lot together going forward.

Minnesota – Mats Zuccarello, Victor Rask, Kirill Kaprizov

The line has 16 goals for and nine against but is faring better than their below-average possession numbers of 44.7 SF percentage and 44.0 CF so tread carefully moving forward as they will have problems maintaining their differential.

Minnesota – Nick Bonino, Nick Bjugstad and Nico Sturm

It is strange to have three lines from the Wild here and have no mention of Kevin Fiala. This line has only been together about a month and has been surprisingly good with six goals for and none against while putting up decent possession numbers of 56.6 SF and 49.7 CF.

Los Angeles – Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and Alex Iafallo

The veteran-laden line is performing well with the Kings so far this season. They have 15 goals for, 11 against and a 57.5 SF percentage and a CF of 54.9. The play has slipped a little in the past 30 days as they have four goals for and eight against with SF of 57.5 and CF of 54.9. Keep an eye on them and see if they continue to slow down.

There are a few other lines that have been fairly hot in the past two weeks in Vancouver with Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser and Nils Hoglander and in Chicago with Patrick Kane, Pius Suter and Alex DeBrincat.

Thank you very much for reading and if you have any comments or suggestions please message me or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.