'Teddy's line' has been Penguins' most consistent trio

Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan doesn’t number his lines.

He just happens to have lines that he plays the most minutes, the second-most minutes, the third-most minutes and the fourth-most minutes.

And regardless of where those lines clock in at, they usually get identified by those within the organization by the name of the center.

Sidney’s Crosby’s line is “Sid’s line.” Evgeni Malkin’s? “Geno’s line.”

Not very creative but certainly concise.

That brings us to “Teddy’s line” with Teddy Blueger at center, Zach Aston-Reese on the left wing and Brandon Tanev at right wing.

What would that be labeled as if one used the that old-timey “name the lines by numbers” technique?

It’s hard to say.

It’s definitely not a first or second line. And it feels more profound than simply a third or fourth line.

When you look at their ice time together, they certainly have found quite a connection.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Aston-Reese, Blueger and Tanev have logged 355 minutes, 34 seconds of common five-on-five ice time, most on the team.

The second most common trio is Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust at 221:34.

Considering how injuries that have ravaged the Penguins’ forwards this season, why has “Teddy’s line” not been parsed to fill in more prominent lines?

“That’s probably been the most consistent line that we’ve kept together,” Sullivan said. “The reason is because we really like it. We like the role that line plays when we’re game-planning night in and night out. They’re a valuable line for us. They play important minutes. They play hard minutes. They have a unique identity as a line within the context of our team. And they’ve really done a great job in the role that we’ve cast them.”

Why have three three players clicked? Aston-Reese and Blueger were close friends in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton but rarely played together in five-on-five scenarios, and Tanev was a big-ticket free-agent signing this offseason. In some ways, they’re three misfit toys.

“We just care a lot about our job and what our role is,” Aston-Reese said. “The way the coach deploys us, a lot of nights, he’ll trust us against other team’s top lines. We all take pride of that. Some nights, we might not get the points. But I think we’ve done a fairly good job of staying consistent and not giving up much on the flip side.”

The first time they were used together from start to finish in a game was a 7-4 road win against the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 12. They logged 9:49 of shared ice time in that contest and were used quite a bit against a line that included a future Hockey Hall-of-Famer in Wild forward Eric Staal.

From that point on, they virtually have been welded together.

“It’s hard to remember how we played right away, but I think the longer the coaching staff stuck with us, the longer we could get to know each other better. It’s been getting better and better. Even (in Tuesday’s 3-0 road loss to the Philadelphia Flyers), there were some plays where we just kind of knew where each other was going to be. Didn’t capitalize, obviously, but despite it not being the best game, we had a couple of decent looks in the offensive zone. We just have to keep building on it and keep working and going forward.”

During that mostly lackluster loss to the Flyers, the Aston-Reese/Blueger/Tanev trio was the Penguins’ best based on shots as it was on the ice for 12 shot attempts for and six against in 12:25 of common five-on-five ice time.

The only other Penguins line to finish the contest in the black with regards to shot attempts was a makeshift group of Crosby, Malkin and Rust towards the end of the game in a desperate push for offense. They had four shot attempts for and two against during 5:52 of common five-on-five ice time.

Beyond generating shots, the base function for the Aston-Reese/Blueger/Tanev line is to play defense most nights. Often, Sullivan and company are eager to sic that line on the opposition’s top line in order to free up Crosby’s line or Malkin’s line for better matchups.

During Sunday’s 4-3 win against the Boston Bruins at home, the Penguins took advantage of being the host. That allowed them to choose matchups off of faceoffs and put Blueger’s line on the ice regularly against the Bruins’ top line of Patrice Bergergon, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. Bergeron’s most common forward matchup based on five-on-five ice time came against Blueger at 5:21.

“It’s not too often they specify, ‘You guys are going against whatever line of the opposition,’ ” Blueger said. “We kind of know how we’ve got to play. Bring energy, and outwork the opposition regardless of who we’re up against. Obviously, when you’re up against the other team’s top lines, it’s a good challenge and I think we enjoy that. At the same time, we always try to contribute on offense and score as much as we can.”

No one is going to confuse the … BART line (Blueger, Aston-Reese, Tanev) line with the fleet HBK line of 2017 anytime soon, but it has produced solid, if modest, offensive totals. In their 50 games, Tanev has 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists), Blueger 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) and Aston-Reese 11 points (five goals, six assists).

If the Penguins add a winger or two before the trade deadline and see injured forwards Nick Bjugstad and Dominik Kahun return to the lineup, “Teddy’s Line” might not be asked to play as much as it has to this point.

At the same time, it’s hard to see the three of them playing with anyone else for the rest of this season.

“We understand how we want to play as a line and what makes us successful when we go out there,” Tanev said. “We all do a great job of reading off of each other and being confident with one another when one guy has the puck. When you have that ability to have confidence in one another, the game becomes a little easier. We all play a similar north-south game and want to be good 200-foot players. As a line, we’ve been able to do that and want to continue to do that over the course of the year.”

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