Lee, Pageau, and Holmstrom ignite offense, netting crucial game-winners and fueling a dominant five-game winning streak. Their magic propels the Islanders.
The New York Islanders won their fifth-straight game on Sunday night inside UBS Arena, sending the Florida Panthers into potential seller's mode.
The win became a third straight win after falling behind 2-0. The Islanders, with a game in hand, have a six-point lead on the Washington Capitals for third place in the Metropolitan.
While Matthew Schaefer has (rightfully) held the spotlight and dominated the talking points, it's suffocated the air from perhaps the next-best story over these three games: the line of Anders Lee, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and Simon Holmstrom.
In the last three games, their fingerprints are all over every aspect of the game. The Islanders scored 13 goals in these three games.
The trio scored six of the 13 goals. Schaefer has four, leaving just three goals spread across the other nine forwards and five defenseman.
Of those six goals, half are the game-winners. Each member of the line has a game-winning goal of their own in these games.
Starting last Thursday in Montreal, Lee tied the game with 1:41 to go off a nifty deflection, with Holmstrom picking up an assist.
In overtime, Holmstrom sprung Pageau for a breakaway, and Pageau called game.
Two days later, in a gigantic game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the trio were back at it again.
Lee kickstarted the comeback, grabbing a loose puck and slamming it home after a Pageau forecheck forced a turnover.
22 seconds later, Pageau drove the net and tied the game on an unassisted goal, this time on a rush after he stole the puck in the neutral zone.
In overtime, Holmstrom completed the trifecta with a slick overtime winner off a feed from Tony DeAngelo.
Two games after the Olympics, five goals in two games for the trio. They invented the term "red-hot" specifically for this trio.
Then came Sunday night. The Islanders again battled back from down 2-0, then from down 3-2 to take a 4-3 lead in the third period. But, with the goalie pulled, Florida tied it, seemingly sending the Islanders to a third-straight overtime game.
Then, with 36 seconds to play, Lee got the puck in the neutral zone. The Islanders' captain turned on the jets, burning Aaron Ekblad in the process. Lee danced around Sergei Bobrovsky, and scored the game-winning goal with 30.9 seconds to go.
The hottest line on the team, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is this Lee-Pageau-Holmstrom trio.
Next up for the Islanders is the annual trip to California. First up, New York takes on the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night. The Ducks play tonight at home against the Colorado Avalanche, so the Islanders should have some extra jump.