Blueger, Aston-Reese, Tanev have been better than a mere ‘4th line’ for Penguins

To open his video conference call with media Wednesday, Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was asked about the effectiveness of his “fourth line” during the team’s first-round playoff series.

“You’re talking about Teddy Blueger’s line?” Sullivan asked.

Purportedly, Sullivan politely was asking for clarification. But it’s also possible Sullivan was delivering a pair of subtle messages: He loathes pecking order-style labels for his forward lines, and the quality of play the unit of Blueger, Zach Aston-Reese and Brandon Tanev has been anything but fourth line-esque in the first two games of the series against the New York Islanders.

“Teddy’s line has had a real good series to this point,” Sullivan said. “They’re an important line for us. They help us with momentum. They’re hard to play against. They can play against anyone. They bring a physical element to our overall team game. They’ve had some offensive zone time. A number of scoring chances. They’re a big part of the penalty kill as well. So I think they’ve had, their first couple of games here, they’ve had strong efforts. I would anticipate they would continue to do that moving forward.”

As measured by ice time at even strength, not only has the Blueger/Tanev/Aston-Reese line played more than the Frederick Gaudreau/Jason Zucker/Evan Rodriguez (so-called third line) unit, they actually even approach the ice time the second line of Jeff Carter/Kasperi Kapanen/Jared McCann has played through two games of this series. The Carter line averaged just 15 seconds of ice time per player per game more at 5 on 5 than the Blueger line has played.

Perhaps the greatest compliment the Blueger line received from Sullivan was in the form of three shifts over the final 5 minutes of what was a one-goal game Tuesday. That’s more than even the line of Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel got in those critical moments.

The numbers — courtesy naturalstattrick.com — are showing it was earned, too.

Tanev, Aston-Reese and Blueger rank 1-2-3 on the Penguins in this series in 5-on-5 expected goals for percentage, a fancy way of saying they are generating far more — and better — scoring chances than their opponents are when they are on the ice.

The three members of the Blueger line are the only three players on the Penguins against whom the Islanders have not generated a “high-danger scoring chance“ at 5 on 5.

Tanev, Aston-Reese and Blueger all rank among the top seven on the team (the only full threesome of linemates that high) in the possession metric of percentage of attempts shots generated. All three also rank among the top seven Penguins forwards in scoring-chance percentage (ratio of chances by the Penguins as opposed to the Islanders during this series while they are on the ice at 5 on 5).

Brandon Tanev is a mad man, but in the best possible way. pic.twitter.com/s4EsqYi6yz

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 19, 2021

Perhaps the Blueger line’s most shining moment was after a ho-hum Penguins’ power play early during the second period of Game 2. The most highly skilled Penguins, playing with an extra man for 2 minutes, attempted just one shot (it was blocked) and were outshot 1-0 by the Islanders’ penalty killers.

The shift that immediately followed was Blueger/Aston-Reese/Tanev at 5 on 5, and they were part of generating four shots on goal and five attempted shots (to none for New York) over the ensuing 33 seconds.

It was a jolt of energy the Blueger line regularly provides for the Penguins. It served as an example why, even if they have not scored during this series, the trio of Blueger/Aston-Reese/Tanev is proving valuable.

“We talk about that a lot with our players, what their expected contributions are and how to we are going to utilize them night in and night out to help us have success,” Sullivan said.

Keep up with the Pittsburgh Penguins all season long.