4 players due for a monster 2nd half

"On the Fly," theScore's NHL roundtable series, is looking to the second half in its latest installment. Below are four players who are going to have big winters.

Patrice Bergeron

Justin Cuthbert: Stuck on single-digit goal and assist totals, and on track for a career-worst season statistically, you have to believe a star like Patrice Bergeron is about to bust out.

That's not because he's "due," per se, but because he's been dominant.

Bergeron's line with Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak has tilted the ice more effectively than any regular unit. They're up around 64 percent possession, and creating more shot attempts than any other trio.

As a result, Marchand and Pastrnak are on track for 30-goal, 60-plus-point seasons. But for whatever reason, and aside from his lowly 5.1 shooting percentage, Bergeron's production has lagged behind.

For now.

Ben Bishop

Cory Wilkins: You can't win without goaltending and Ben Bishop will play a big role down the stretch for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

With his recent injury woes behind him, look for Bishop to return as the clutch netminder who has 22 postseason wins over the past two years.

Among the goaltenders who appeared in at least 10 playoff games last spring, Bishop's .939 save percentage came second to only Braden Holtby - the lone netminder to finish ahead of Bishop in Vezina voting.

Bishop has struggled through the first half of this season, with just 10 wins in 23 games. Despite his average play and the constant trade chatter, Bishop has still outperformed the younger Andrei Vasilevskiy and remains the top option in Tampa Bay's crease.

A year ago, the St. Louis Blues - a Stanley Cup contender like the Lightning - held onto their pending free agents at the trade deadline, most notably captain David Backes. The Blues' top priority was to win. With Tampa Bay in a Cup window of its own, we could see a similar non-move, where Bishop is considered more valuable as a current part of the team than as a piece in a deal focused on the future.

Nathan MacKinnon

Ian McLaren: If the Colorado Avalanche are intent on building around youth and speed, there are few better cornerstones than Nathan MacKinnon.

The thing is, the 21-year-old has gotten off to a slow start in this, his fourth NHL season. Through 39 games, he had recorded only 10 goals, putting him on pace for 21 - or three fewer than the career high he set as a rookie.

MacKinnon did score his 11th goal Thursday, marking the second straight game he found the back of the net.

With questions surrounding the long-term futures of Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Duchene, Colorado appears set to become MacKinnon's team, and he's going to show why with a big second-half performance.

Filip Forsberg

Navin Vaswani: After back-to-back breakout seasons with 64 and 63 points, including a career-high 33 goals last season, Filip Forsberg's on pace for 20 markers and 31 assists. Respectable, sure, but guys named Forsberg are better than that.

Things are going to change in the second half, and let last season be a lesson to all of us:

Forsberg lives for the cold. After a five-point January 2016, Forsberg erupted, scoring 19 goals and 34 points in 32 games after the All-Star break. And he's going to do it again, because the Nashville Predators need him to.

The Swede's doing it already, in fact. Forsberg has eight goals and two assists in his last 15 games - he's heating up.

Last season was Forsberg's best on the power play, too, as he scored eight times and added 15 assists. Nashville converted on 19.7 percent of its man-advantage opportunities in 2015-16, and is at 18.7 percent in 2016-17. In other words, Forsberg's power-play points are coming - and they better be. Four goals and two assists isn't cutting it.

When they do, Forsberg will be a 60-point player once more, and the Predators a playoff team again.