Mark all lines vertically
If the aim is to get every line marked vertically instead of horizontally in the legend, you could update the legend handle via the handler_map.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.legend_handler import HandlerLine2D
plt.plot([1,3,2], label='something')
plt.plot([.5,.5], [1,3], label='something else')
def update_prop(handle, orig):
handle.update_from(orig)
x,y = handle.get_data()
handle.set_data([np.mean(x)]*2, [0, 2*y[0]])
plt.legend(handler_map={plt.Line2D:HandlerLine2D(update_func=update_prop)})
plt.show()

Replicate line in miniature form
If the aim is to get a miniature version of the plotted line in the legend, you may in principle use this answer to Using a miniature version of the plotted data as the legend handle. There is a slight modification needed to account for a possibly 0 width bounding box though, which I now also edited into the original answer. Here, it would look like:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.legend_handler import HandlerLine2D
import matplotlib.path as mpath
from matplotlib.transforms import BboxTransformFrom, BboxTransformTo, Bbox
class HandlerMiniatureLine(HandlerLine2D):
def create_artists(self, legend, orig_handle,
xdescent, ydescent, width, height, fontsize,
trans):
legline, _ = HandlerLine2D.create_artists(self,legend, orig_handle,
xdescent, ydescent, width, height, fontsize, trans)
legline.set_data(*orig_handle.get_data())
ext = mpath.get_paths_extents([orig_handle.get_path()])
if ext.width == 0:
ext.x0 -= 0.1
ext.x1 += 0.1
bbox0 = BboxTransformFrom(ext)
bbox1 = BboxTransformTo(Bbox.from_bounds(xdescent, ydescent, width, height))
legline.set_transform(bbox0 + bbox1 + trans)
return legline,
plt.plot([1,3,2], label='something')
plt.plot([.5,.5], [1,3], label='something else')
plt.legend(handler_map={plt.Line2D:HandlerMiniatureLine()})
plt.show()
