Hi everyone!

We're back for another week of Lining Up. Some teams in the Western Conference lost some big pieces to their lineup. Luckily, they are strapped with talent that they can plug in another skater and hopefully they don't skip a beat. For us as fantasy managers, we may have found some new streaming options to give our squads a boost for a couple of weeks or potentially longer.

Carolina Hurricanes

Nikolaj Ehlers recorded his first point as a Hurricane on Monday evening. There were high expectations for him going into the season as the 'Canes invested a lot of money on the Danish winger. I believe there is an old saying that goes something like "the first one is always the toughest" and now that he has that point, hopefully they will start coming. The assist came on a Sebastian Aho goal, so they are still playing him with top guys. Seth Jarvis is also on that line and with the amount of money they spent on Ehlers over the summer, now may be the time to buy low as Ehlers looks to build off his best performance of the season.

Florida Panthers

In the midst of a four-game losing streak, the Panthers have dished out new power-play units to try and shake things up. They were one of the only teams that had two defensemen on their top unit (the injuries to Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov don't help), but now they only have Seth Jones anchoring that line with Aaron Ekblad on the second group. The coaching group has moved Mackie Samoskevich and Anton Lundell to the ones, along with Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand, and Jones. 

This obviously boosts Samoskevich for the short term and Lundell gets an added boost with him jumping up to the top unit. If they are able to start hot, they'll keep them together, but the team could put everything in the blender again if they lose another game.

Los Angeles Kings

The Kings labeled Anze Kopitar out week-to-week with a foot injury. That puts the retirement tour on hold for right now, which is really unfortunate because he was having a nice statistical start to his final season. The coaches decided to give the first top-line opportunity to… Alex Laferriere? And in the team's first game with him as 1C, they fell into an early 3-0 hole in the second period. However, the Kings put the lines in a blender and gave us fantasy managers something to salivate for: they sent out Kevin Fiala, Quinton Byfield, and Adrian Kempe. That top line was able to tie the game in the third period with a goal from Fiala. 

As long as Kopitar is out, us fantasy managers hope that this trio can stay together because they all possess the offensive instincts and high-end skill that make this game of hockey fun to watch. The Kings are out on the road for five games so their coaching staff may take a defensive approach to their lineup, but if they get in a hole, watch out.

New York Rangers

The Rangers seem to be gripping their sticks too hard when they are playing at Madison Square Garden. The bright lights of MSG have only allowed one goal all season… to the home team. That is right, in four games on home ice, the Rangers have scored ONE goal. Artemi Panarin has seven points in eight games thus far, but for his standards, that is an underperformance. There are a lot of guys on this team you could try and buy low on because once they are able to squeeze the ketchup out of the bottle, it will all come out. Panarin, JT Miller, and Mika Zibanejad are all averaging over 20 minutes per game, so it is only a matter of time because they start consistently filling that score sheet. 

Vancouver Canucks

Filip Chytil is out with no timeline to return after a big hit on Sunday afternoon. After scoring two goals in the opener against the Calgary Flames, he has only hit the scoresheet once in five games all while playing top-six minutes. The Czech center is a certified band-aid boy with a bad concussion history and with this hit he just took, you can bet the Canucks are going to be extremely cautious. 

With a few other injuries they have sustained, GM Patrik Allvin is looking to add a center according to Iain MacIntyre. But in the meantime, first year head coach Adam Foote will lean on the big boys. Elias Pettersson (the center) should see some extra offensive minutes (he is currently only averaging 18 minutes per game, which is third among their forward group) and Evander Kane (in a contract year and currently only averaging 16 and a half minutes).

Vegas Golden Knights

Mark Stone is also out week-to-week after suffering a wrist injury on Saturday night. If you would have told me someone on the Golden Knights was leading the league in assists a few weeks into the season, my money would have been on Mitch Marner; syke, it was Stone. His chemistry with Ivan Barbashev and Jack Eichel has been on another level early in the season, but now we have been robbed of it (really wasn't expecting this until late February).

Now would have been the perfect time to try Marner with Eichel for a few games, but his line with Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev has had a tremendous start to the campaign as well. It turns out Brandon Saad is the lucky winger to draw in on Eichel's wing, at least to start. So far so good though, as Saad had the primary assist on the first goal of their game Monday night against the Carolina Hurricanes (scored by Eichel).

They ended up giving the 'Canes their first loss of the season, so I imagine Saad will stick on the top line for a couple of games. If you need a streamer for your matchup this week, take a hard look at him. They don't play again until Saturday, but they do have a back-to-back so he should be able to easily slide into your Sunday lineups.