Welcome back to another edition of Lining Up. This week will examine a well-known line on a hot streak and a few lesser-known players who find themselves in favourable situations. The next two weeks are particularly tricky to navigate with teams off periodically during this stretch for the All-Star Break.

Let's dive in.

Kyle Palmieri – Anders Lee – Brock Nelson

Given the rocky road that is the NHL schedule over the next two weeks, it is worth highlighting the top Islanders line recently of Brock Nelson, Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri. Lee and Nelson on the season are strong possession players who are often favourably deployed against slightly weaker competition and in the offensive zone. In the short time that Palmieri has played on this line they have dominated with a 63.1% Corsi For and a plus-three goal differential. At almost 53 minutes together it is not a large sample size but the strong Corsi For rating in addition to their usage against quality of competition and offensive zone time are good indicators that the line is really clicking and being put in a position to succeed.

Aside from positive underlying analytics, all three players are on hot streaks since Palmieri returned from a brief absence. Brock Nelson is leading the charge with seven points in his past six games, including four goals. He is currently on the best point-pace of his career at 73 and has raised his shot on goal output by half a shot per game to 2.9. In addition, despite not having any power-play points in this recent hot streak, Nelson is seeing the most power-play time of his career. He is averaging 3:10 which is nearly a full minute more than he saw in his last three seasons. Nelson has so far made the most of this increase as he has the highest Power-Play Individual Points Percentage (PPIPP) of his career with this increased time at 68.8% and currently sits at 11 power-play points, the third-highest total of his career and it is only January. Even better, the arrival of Horvat will hopefully help Nelson with his power-play production. If Nelson can maintain his PPIPP and Horvat brings a boost to the Islander's power-play, Nelson could be in line for a strong finish to the season.

Nelson's long-time line mate, Lee, is following in the same vein, seeing his highest power-play TOI average in the last three seasons while elevating his shot output to 2.7 shots per game, up from 2.1 last season. He is on a streak with five points in five games, including four goals and his 55-point pace is right on track with his previous few seasons. Palmieri is a bit more an outlier, as he is only producing at a 46 point-pace but that is his best since leaving New Jersey. His recent deployment with Nelson and Lee has really benefited him as despite the low pace, he is also on a hot streak with five points in the past four games along with his usual peripheral contribution of two shots and nearly two hits per game. Lee is rostered in 53% of Yahoo leagues while Palmieri is much lower at 6%, with the Islanders ranking among the better schedules during the All-Star break, consider streaming a player from this hot line.

The Islanders play four games from February 6^th to the 12^th, tied for most of any team over the All-Star schedule, but those games also come against Philadelphia, Seattle, Vancouver and Montreal. Assuming the time between now and February 6^th does nothing to cool this line off, they will be primed to continue scoring against three non-playoff teams. With the Horvat trade, keep an eye on how this shakes up the line combinations. The hot stretch that this trio has been on lately may be the additional impetus to keep them together, Dobber's trade breakdown suggests Barzal will be shifted to the wing and Horvat will centre that line, in which case Nelson, Lee and Palmieri would stay together.

Michael Eyssimont – Logan Couture

Since being claimed off waivers by San Jose, Michael Eyssimont has been given prime even-strength deployment, playing first alongside Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier before being moved to a line with Logan Couture. The results were mixed while playing with Hertl and Meier, only scoring once in 55 minutes of ice time. It has been much better playing with Couture however, as Eyssimont recorded three points against Carolina and followed that up with a goal against Pittsburgh the next night. As noted in Ian's Ramblings on Sunday, Eyssimont is a solid contributor in peripheral categories with three shots and two hits per game since his arrival in San Jose and he is also averaging about three minutes more ice time here than he was in Winnipeg. Eyssimont is virtually unowned in most Yahoo leagues so monitor this situation, if he continues to receive this amount of ice time and line up alongside Couture, there may be value with this kind of peripheral contribution.

For his part, Couture exploded for five points against Pittsburgh and that moves him right on track for his usual 68-point pace, six above his career average of 62. Couture continues to land over two shots a game and is adding one and a half hits as well. All five of his points came at even-strength Saturday so perhaps Couture and Eyssimont are fitting well together. Again, something to monitor and hopefully this experiment continues on the other side of the All-Star Break.

Ridly Greig

Also worth noting, Ridly Greig has posted two points in the first three games of his NHL career, and he is being given excellent deployment to showcase his talents. He is on a line with Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat at even strength while also averaging two and a half minutes on the second power-play unit with Giroux. Both of his points so far were primary assists on the power-play, so there is room for some production at even strength. In the Dobber Prospect Report, Greig was noted as being comparable in style to Nazem Kadri, the type of player with modest point production who also brings some grit as indicated by his 92 penalty minutes and two suspensions in the WHL last season. He posted 63 points in 39 games played last season and, so far, has 23 points and 38 penalty minutes in 28 games in the AHL.

His first kick at the can in the NHL could be a lot worse than averaging 14:44 minutes and secondary power-play time with Claude Giroux. Monitor this deployment and consider scooping him up tonight against Montreal given the light schedule.