Penguins' Teddy Blueger on performance this season: 'Not good'

There are a lot of adjectives that can be affixed to Pittsburgh Penguins forward Teddy Blueger and how he approaches his vocation.

Detailed.

Dutiful.

Thorough.

Reliable.

Blueger offered a much different term on Tuesday.

“Not good, probably,” the 28-year-old said when asked to describe his 2022-23 season after practice Tuesday in Cranberry. “Got to try to figure it out. Bring it back to basics and do all the details right.”

The stout defensive center has labored through a less-than-ideal campaign since training camp when an undisclosed injury he suffered in late September kept him out of the lineup until Nov. 15.

In 28 games, Blueger, never an overly productive scorer at the NHL level, has been limited to seven points (one goal, six assists) while clocking an average of 12 minutes, 23 seconds of ice time per contest.

Digging deeper, Blueger’s possession figures are the lowest of his five-year career. Typically deployed in defensive scenarios — such as defensive-zone draws — he has been on the ice for 199 shot attempts for and 267 shots attempts against during five-on-five play, equating to a possession rate of 42.7% according to Natural Stat Trick.

(For the sake of comparison, Blueger’s possession rate last season was 48.38%.)

Another way to describe Blueger is honest. He was quite critical when asked for a self-audit Tuesday.

“I feel like I’ve kind of analyzed it to death,” Blueger said. “I probably could have a little more poise with the puck. Make a little more plays. Just got to focus. Doing all the details and winning battles. Hopefully, it will come sooner than later. Just got to try and do everything I can and see where the chips fall.”

Blueger’s coach wasn’t quite as harsh in his assessment.

“Teddy is hard on himself,” Mike Sullivan said. “I think he’s his own biggest critic. The one area where I think he is capable of more is on the offensive side. He thinks the game pretty well. He has the ability to generate and create for his line offensively. That’s an area where I think it’s not just on him as an individual. But as a line, I think they’re capable of generating more offensively. That’s where I think we would look to see some improvement there.

“But we rely on him a lot in defensive situations. He’s a real conscientious player. And I think his penalty kill speaks for itself.”

Blueger is still typically the first over the boards for the penalty kill. And despite missing the first 15 games of the season, he is third among the team’s forwards with 82 defensive-zone starts in five-on-five scenarios.

In years past, Blueger has enjoyed the benefit of playing with steady linemates. During the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, his linemates, almost exclusively, were Zach Aston-Reese and Brandon Tanev. And during the 2021-22 campaign, he primarily skated with Aston-Reese and Brock McGinn.

This season, he has had a menagerie of wingmen such as McGinn, Josh Archibald, Ryan Poehling and Danton Heinen. On Monday, he centered the third line with Jeff Carter on the right wing and Drew O’Connor at left wing.

Blueger, who said he is not dealing with any lingering effects from his injury in training camp, refused to cite linemates as the root cause for an unsatisfactory season.

“Regardless of who I play with, we have a lot of good players,” Blueger said. “I don’t think that’s (a factor).”

One thing that has been consistent with Blueger is his fastidious approach to improving his play. His obsession with rounding out the rough edges to his game typically makes him the final member of the team to leave the ice after practices.

Such was the case Tuesday.

Whether things are going good or — by his own description — bad, he knows of no other way to elevate his subpar play.

“What else am I going to do? Quit? Stop trying?” Blueger asked rhetorically. “I have faith that it will come eventually. You just have to put in the work. I’ve had long stretches without points or whatever before in my career. No goals, all of that. I’ve been through it before. It’s not the first time. You’ve just got to come back and go again and trust that it will go in eventually.”

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