Injured Penguins forward Teddy Blueger on verge of returning

A veteran of 14 seasons, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Brian Boyle is well-versed on most things as it pertains to an existence in the NHL.

There are two axioms in particularly that ring true to him.

First, job security is hard to come by.

Second, defense can land you some steady work and help carve out a career of — let’s say — 14 years.

So when he speaks about Teddy Blueger — the man who could replace him as the Penguins’ checking-line center starting with Tuesday’s home contest against the Florida Panthers — he offers a very educated perspective.

“In my opinion, he is an elite center for his role in the league,” Boyle said recently. “He’s really underrated around the league. He works to get better. He studies it, he wants to be perfect at it, he works on his draws, which are huge, he is fearless, he’ll get in front of shots and he competes. Little things that you have to do, he recognizes where danger is. He can figure out if we break down or something happens that wasn’t really scripted. He’s usually in the right spot. He’s a huge part of our team.”

It remains to be seen if that segment of the squad is in place for Tuesday’s matchup with the Panthers. Officially, Blueger was deemed a “game-time decision” by coach Mike Sullivan following Monday’s practice in Cranberry.

Unofficially, everything seems to suggest Blueger will play his first game since suffering a broken jaw Jan. 23. During Monday’s practice, he skated on the fourth line with his usual linemates, Brock McGinn and Zach Aston-Reese. Meanwhile, Boyle was relegated to working on a “fourth” defensive pairing with reserve blue liner P.O Joseph.

“I feel really good,” said Blueger, who enters Tuesday still designated to injured reserve. “I’ve been on the ice for a while now. As far as practice, I’ve done everything that I would have needed to do to feel comfortable getting back into a game situation. I don’t think there’s anything more that I really need to do. At this point, I think it’s just getting back into the game.”

Blueger was injured during a 3-2 home shootout win against the Winnipeg Jets. In the early stages of that contest, Blueger was struck in the head against the boards by Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon.

“Obviously, you can see a lot better with just the (half) visor on. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back to that soon. But I’ve had plenty of time in practice to get used to that stuff. It does fog up a little bit. The little squares on the bottom don’t help you see the puck any better when it’s in your feet. But we’ve all played with that stuff on our whole lives growing up, and it was fine. It’s just something you get used to. Obviously, looking forward to getting it off. But it is what it is. There’s nothing that I can do about it. It’s not really my call at this point. There’s no point in getting frustrated or whatever about it. You’ve just got to play the hand you’re dealt.”

It doesn’t appear there will be any lingering after-effects from a mental standpoint with the injury. In other words, Blueger doesn’t believe he’ll be hesitant to engage physically despite how he was maimed.

“Obviously, you don’t really know for sure until you get in that situation, but I don’t think so,” Blueger said. “Everything that I’ve done leading up to it — all the contact, the puck protection, all that stuff — has felt really good. I do have that extra layer of protection with the ‘bubble’ (face shield), so I don’t really anticipate that being an issue.”

Whenever he does return to the lineup, Blueger’s presence won’t be limited to the fourth line. There is a ripple effect that can be felt on all four lines. Namely, Blueger figures eat up most of the defensive zone draws and free up the top three centers — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jeff Carter — to take more offensive zone faceoffs.

“It slots players where we had envisioned them to be in the lineup and cast them in the roles that allow them to play to their strengths,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “It gives us a certain amount of balance through our lineup. We can utilize different guys in different situations on the ice depending on what situations arise. We’re trying to put players in positions where they can play to their strengths and play a certain role that makes us hard to play against but gives us the balance through our lineup that we can get some offensive production throughout our lineup. But also, we can get responsible defensive play. That’s the ripple effect: It just creates a deeper lineup, a more balanced lineup and gives us the ability to play guys in certain situations that help them play to their strengths.”

One of Blueger’s most vivid strengths is his work on the penalty kill. In 40 games this season, Blueger has averaged 2 minutes, 6 seconds of short-handed ice time per contest, most among the team’s forwards.

“He can do it all,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “He’s great on faceoffs. He’s a great shot-blocker. He kind of commands our (penalty kill), he takes charge. Whenever our (penalty kill) is struggling and everybody’s not on the same page and everybody’s decision-making isn’t as fast, I think he takes charges and shows to everybody else that they can follow him. … Up ice, too, he’s a great distributor of putting pressure on the puck and disturbing the breakouts.”

There certainly is no shortage of ways Blueger can help the Penguins. And there appears to be a surplus of enthusiasm for his potential return.

“He adds so much versatility to our lineup,” forward Bryan Rust said. “He’s a guy that plays a lot of minutes in our (defensive) zone because he gets a lot of faceoffs there, and he does an unbelievable job. He’s a guy who we rely on a lot for things like that. If the opportunity comes to get him back (Tuesday), it’s obviously going to be really nice.”

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