Teddy Blueger's value grows for Penguins

TORONTO — It wasn’t Game 7 of a playoff series. It wasn’t even Game 3.

It was Game 58 of the regular season. And it was against a team that might not make the postseason.

And the Pittsburgh Penguins already were up four goals.

Suffice to say, when the Penguins took the ice to defend a five-on-three power-play opportunity for the Toronto Maple Leafs during the second period of Tuesday’s 5-2 victory, the stakes weren’t terribly high.

Important? Certainly. But hardly paramount.

Still, the fact forward Teddy Blueger was one of the three players coach Mike Sullivan sent on the ice to deal with a talented Maple Leafs power play was significant.

Blueger won a defensive zone draw against All-Star forward John Tavares and helped the Penguins kill off 1 minute, 19 seconds of a two-man advantage. Then, as the teams returned to even strength, Blueger scored the Penguins’ fifth goal, which virtually crushed what little spirit the Maple Leafs had.

(Video courtesy NHL)

The sequence illustrated trust that wasn’t necessarily in place last season, when Blueger was playing his first games as an NHL rookie.

Blueger showed promise as a rookie with 10 points (six goals, four assists) in 28 games. But not enough for the coaching staff to play him more than one game in the playoffs.

In the offseason, venerable fourth-line center Matt Cullen finally retired at age 42, and that created an opportunity for Blueger, a second-round pick in 2012, to show he was a full-time NHLer.

Before Thursday’s rematch with the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank, Blueger had appeared in 58 games and scored 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists).

Most importantly, he’s playing more.

He has averaged 16:03 of ice time this season, up from 11:03 as a rookie.

“Now, the way I feel out there and the things I can do, I’m better than I was a year ago,” Blueger said. “You try to improve every year and keep moving forward. That being said, a year from now, I hope to be a lot better, as well. There’s a lot of things I need to improve in order to get there.”

Said Sullivan: “Teddy’s really established himself as just a real solid NHL player. He has a vitally important role on this team. He knows exactly what his role is, and he embraces it. And he does a great job at it. He’s one of our best penalty killers. He’s a real cerebral player.”

Perhaps the best way to display Sullivan’s trust in Blueger is defensive faceoffs.

Blueger takes a lot of them.

At 437 defensive-zone faceoffs, Blueger is by far the team’s leader in that metric.

Much of that trust also comes because of Blueger’s normal linemates, Brandon Tanev and Zach Aston-Reese, who is sidelined because of an undisclosed injury.

“His line, the role that line plays for our team, is really important,” Sullivan said. “They get hard minutes. They get a lot of (defensive) zone starts, and they thrive on it. They understand what their role is and how they can help this team win. All those guys on that line, they embrace it. Teddy in particular. He’s just a real smart player. He’s got great awareness away from the puck. He’s competitive. He’s strong on pucks. And now, he’s shown an offensive dimension to his game.”

Added Tanev: “He thinks the game extremely well. When you’re put in certain situations, he’s able to almost think one step ahead of the play. When (he doesn’t) have the puck, (he’s) already thinking what (he’s) going to do with it. That’s definitely a great attribute he has. He’s a really intelligent player ,and it’s just been fun playing with him thus far.”

To hear Blueger talk about the game, it’s clear he has an intricate way of ruminating over hockey.

“I would say the overall feel of the game, being able to hang onto pucks more,” Blueger said of what he has improved on the most in his second season. “Being more patient out there. The first little bit I was here, obviously, the pace is really fast, and you try and adjust everything you do. You do everything at full speed. Whereas now, you have a better feel for the game. You can slow it down or speed it up, whatever you feel like is right at the time. Just being able to see plays develop, like seams open up through sticks and stuff like that.”

What does he need to improve at the most?

“Faceoffs,” he said succinctly. “My shot. I’ve had a lot of good scoring chances this year that I didn’t capitalize on. I could have had a lot more goals I feel like. Those are the main two.”

Whatever shortcomings Blueger has, he remains studious in refining them as he is typically the last player off the ice after practices or morning skates.

“He loves the game and really enjoys spending time working on his game,” Tanev said. “That’s definitely helped him a lot this year. He’s been playing great for us, and we want to keep that going as a line.”

“Teddy’s a hard-working guy,” Sullivan said. “He takes pride in his game. He works at his game. I don’t think it’s by accident that Teddy’s had the success that he’s had this year. He deserves a lot of credit for the commitment that he’s made to try to improve as a hockey player the last handful of seasons. His practice habits are tremendous. His appetite to get better is impressive.”

A year removed from trying to prove he belongs, Blueger remains hungry.

“That was obviously a different situation (last season),” Blueger said. “I was just trying to get in the lineup and get some minutes. That’s kind of the way it progresses. Once you get some minutes and you’re consistently in the lineup, you’re trying to fight for more and more ice time and a bigger role. That’s what I’m trying to do right now. Obviously, it feels good when you’re playing more and you’re helping the team win and contribute. That’s a satisfying feeling. You feel more and more involved and a bigger part of the team.”

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