Welcome back to another edition of Lining Up. With playoffs in most leagues either starting next week or already underway, we're going to take a look at some recent line combinations on teams that have strong schedules in the short term. At this time of year, it's important to maximize your roster spots and not leave any stone left unturned to optimize your roster.

Let's dive in.

Colorado

Colorado has one of the best schedules between this week and next, playing seven games with five of them on light days. The most of any team in either respect. Colorado will also play against weaker competition, seeing Ottawa and Detroit this week followed by Chicago and Arizona twice next week. With this mind, let's examine their line combination from their game against Toronto on Wednesday.

Two forwards stand out as potential streaming options in the days to come based on their favourable line deployment. Evan Rodrigues is having his best season to date after steadily improving his tenure by moving from Buffalo to Pittsburgh and now on Colorado producing at a 47 point-pace. He has been fortunate to spend over a third of his time at even strength with either Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen or both and as a result has scored nearly half of his points with these linemates. Currently he is lining up alongside both players and has four points in his last six games. Not amazing production but given the upcoming schedule and strength of opponents as mentioned, he could be in prime position to get in on a lot of upcoming goals.

J.T. Compher has been on a cold streak lately but broke a pointless slump with a goal against Montreal on Monday night. In spite of the recent snap in production, Compher is still being deployed on the top power-play unit alongside MacKinnon and Rantanen and consequently has been averaging a 72.8 PP% during his last six games which is well above his 45% average on the season. He is also having a strong season for his standards, moving along at a 54 point-pace which would be his highest career total by 14 points. Compher is due for some positive regression as his Shooting % and 5on5 Shooting % are both slightly lower than expected. Point pace and underlying metrics aside, locking down a spot on the top power-play unit in Colorado will be very enticing over the next several days with this schedule.

At 26% and 38% rostered in Yahoo leagues respectively, Rodrigues and Compher could be solid streaming options for your team over the next week and a half.

St. Louis

Another team with an excellent upcoming schedule is St. Louis. They also play seven games between tonight and Sunday the 26^th with four games coming on light nights. The team also has some good matchups although less so than Colorado with two games against Detroit next week followed by a game against Anaheim. To get a good sense of their line combinations recently, particularly on the power-play, we're going to take a look at the deployment over the past three games.

Jakub Vrana was the recent acquisition made by St. Louis from Detroit. After tantalizing potential in Washington, his tenure in Detroit has been underwhelming as well as his deployment, with secondary power-play time while averaging 13:30 of ice time in his second stint with the team. Much of that though, has been overshadowed by a lengthy injury last season and a brief absence while he entered into the Player Assistance Program. Hopefully with any lingering ailments behind him, Vrana has begun fresh with St. Louis and so far has scored two goals in his first four games while as noted, receiving more quality time on the power-play. He has already averaged a 57.7 %PP or close to a 2:00 PPTOI average. Perhaps a change of scenery is good for him and the upcoming schedule may allow for Vrana tease managers once again.

Since his move from New York and the departure of Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari, Sammy Blais has seen increased usage, culminating in lining up alongside Brayden Schenn and Brandon Saad as opposed to his usual fourth line role with the Rangers where he was typically playing with Ryan Carpenter, Barclay Goodrow and Julien Gauthier. During his time with New York, Blais averaged 9:37 of TOI with a 5.2 %PP and 0:15 PPTOI. Since joining St. Louis? That has all increased to a 14:02 TOI, 34.2 %PP and 1:40 PPTOI. In his last three games, Blais is particularly noticeable with four points in those three games, including three against Columbus, as well as 18 hits. For those in peripheral leagues, rostering Blais could provide potential scoring depth while padding your hit totals considering you can get seven games out him between today and next Sunday.

Aside from depth options in Vrana and Blais, the remaining offensive triumvirate of Pavel Buchnevich, Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas are all hot right now, particularly Buchnevich who, as one of the few bright spots remaining on the roster, is on an absolute tear with 15 points in his past nine games. He is on pace for 93 points which would be his best season to date. Thomas is still playing beside best and most frequent linemate Kyrou and after some ups and downs is currently on a streak with seven points in his last five games. Plus, he is 61% rostered in Yahoo leagues and so could be available for your early playoff rounds.

Good luck to everyone in the playoffs and to those who are looking forward to next year!