Welcome back to another playoff edition of Lining Up. This week will bring its own set of challenges for managers as the schedule will see a significant number of games condensed to Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights. Half of the league plays on these busy nights while only six teams have multiple games on off nights. The strategy for this week will be to maximize your roster spots by spreading out your talent as best as possible throughout the week and not leaving any man games on the bench if you can avoid it. Here are some notable players who have recently been thriving due to their line situation and who will be playing on the lighter nights of the week: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Let's dive in.

Anders Lee – Brock Nelson

After slow starts to the season for these two players, and really the entire Islanders team, Lee and Nelson have turned their fortunes around. Both players have been lining up together for nearly a quarter of their overall time for the season along with Anthony Beauvillier, but only in the last few quarters has led to success. When examining the difference between the first two and last two quarters for each player there is a significant increase in production:

Lee:

Nelson:

Lee went from being on a 0.47 point per game pace during the first two quarters to a 0.77 pace in his last 45 games. Nelson actually started the season on a stronger note with 19 points in his first 26 games for a pace of 0.73. In his next 36 games he recorded 33 points for a near point-per-game pace. Note that the PPTOI and TOI largely remained consistent from quarter to quarter, so what sparked the change in production? Perhaps a positive regression to the mean but more likely is that both were put together on the same line. In the first two quarters they barely saw time with one another but once they were reunited the production followed accordingly.

The Islanders play four more times this week with two of those games coming on Friday and Sunday. If you are in need of maximizing your roster spots, scoop up one of these two players as both are under 50% in Yahoo leagues.

Sam Reinhart – Mason Marchment – Anton Lundell

All three players have been paired together for the majority of their seasons and have been an absolute force as a third line unit. So far they have posted 24 goals-for and only six against with a CF% of 60.6. Lethal numbers. Even while Lundell missed time with injury, Reinhart and Marchment maintained their pairing so it is safe to say at this point that there is some chemistry here. Reinhart is the big fish as he is the only participant of this line who also holds a spot on the top power-play unit and he is particularly hot right now with six points in his past three games.

Marchment had four points in a row before going cold for three games and Lundell has recorded three points in five games since his return from injury, so not noticeably hot lately. However with the line remaining intact and with Florida's upcoming schedule, consider adding them as they are owned at 19% and 18% respectively in Yahoo leagues. This is particularly advisable for later in the week as Florida will play on Friday and Sunday which will allow you to wait before making your move.

As an honourable mention, don't sleep on Anthony Duclair if he is still available in your league. Following a brief period of Giroux being moved to a line with Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe, Duclair has once again found himself lining up with stud Fin. Florida has recently been running a five forward power-play which has also allowed Duclair to not be displaced despite the arrival of Giroux. With Aaron Ekblad still anticipated to be out until playoffs, it seems unlikely that a defenceman would be substituted in at this point.

If you are in need of peripheral categories, particularly blocks and hits, Ben Chiarot has been a valuable contributor in those categories recently. Since his arrival to Florida, he has averaged 2.6 hits and 2.4 blocks per game, which is an increase from his 2.0 and 1.7 respectively during his season with Montreal.

Florida will play three more times this week and two of those games will be on Friday and Sunday night. If you find yourself overloaded on busy nights, consider exchanging one of your lesser players for any of these players from Florida to balance out your week. Especially since they will play a porous Anaheim and Detroit team during the week.

Stay safe and good luck in your final few weeks of playoffs!