Blueger, Aston-Reese, McGinn form 'best line' in shootout loss

Through the first four games of the season, the Penguins have managed to take six of eight possible points and have yet to suffer a regulation loss.

An impressive feat, given the absences of the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in all four games, plus Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust among others missing time.

In that span, there have been contributions throughout the lineup, especially from the forwards in bottom-six roles. And in Tuesday's 2-1 shootout loss to the Stars at PPG Paints Arena, no line stood out more on either side than that of Teddy Blueger between Zach Aston-Reese and Brock McGinn. Not at possessing the puck. Not at maintaining offensive zone time. Not at creating offensive opportunities.

Those three were on the ice together for a total of 13:49 at five-on-five -- most of any of the Penguins' forward lines -- and, when they were, the team attempted 16 shots while allowing two, and registered seven shots on goal while allowing one, and controlled an astronomical 94.29 percent of the expected goals for. That's all the more impressive given that the line, typically deployed in a more defensive role, had only two of its 11 faceoffs occur in the offensive zone.

That translated to being on the ice for one goal for, and none against, with the goal coming from John Marino in the second period to tie the score, 1-1. It was set up by McGinn and Marcus Pettersson, but the contributions of that whole third line were so evident on the entire buildup:

It's not the prettiest of play at times, but it's a full 31 seconds of offensive zone time that includes four shot attempts, with the last one being the goal.

"They were great," Marino said afterward of Blueger's line. "They had offensive zone presence the whole night, moving around and everything. They were tired. We had them hemmed in for a little while and we were able to make some plays, then just kind of a fortunate bounce right in the middle."

"They're known as a checking line, but they've been doing way more than that," Mike Matheson said of the line's night. "It's been great to see."

Mike Sullivan acknowledged that, while the line typically is used in a more defensive capacity, they think that there's still an "offensive dimension" to it. While Sullivan is obviously familiar with Aston-Reese and Blueger, he added that he's still "learning" McGinn's game, and early impressions are that he's shown an ability to generate offense.

All three possess the qualities that make it possible for their team to gain and maintain that offensive zone time that led to all of those shot attempts for and so few against, despite being deployed against other teams' top talent.

"They're a line that's hard to play against," Sullivan said. "All three of them are strong on pucks, they're strong in the battle areas, they play the game with a lot of courage. There's some physicality to their game you know and I think they have the ability to generate some offense. ... They got a fair amount of time against the (Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov) line. ... They got a bunch of defensive zone starts and they defend hard, get the puck in the offensive zone."

Sullivan said that he thought the line was the Penguins' "best line tonight."

There's bound to be some line shuffling as the Penguins start to get healthier at forward as the season progresses. Here's betting that the Aston-Reese, Blueger, McGinn line stays intact.

MORE FROM THE GAME

• The Penguins' sellout streak ended at 633 games, with Tuesday's game only being at 89.5 percent capacity. The team's CEO, David Morehouse, spoke with a select few reporters during the first intermission about why he thinks the streak ended. More on that here.

• Michael Raffl's opening goal for the Stars was this one-timer from the right circle with 9.7 seconds left in the first period:

• Guentzel and Kris Letang were stopped in the shootout. Jeff Carter scored the Penguins' only shootout goal. Radek Faksa was stopped for the Stars, then Joe Pavelski and Radulov scored.

• Tristan Jarry made 28 saves on 29 shots, and had a number of outstanding saves. He was the reason this game got to overtime:

... and then the reason it went to a shootout:

• Letang had a big showing in overtime with this sprawling stickcheck to disrupt up a Dallas two-on-one, though Jarry would still have to make a save:

• Letang led the team with five shots on goal.

• Jason Zucker led in hits, with five.

• Matheson recorded three shots on goal, three hits, and led the team with three takeaways in his season debut after missing the first three games with a nagging lower-body injury.

"It was a bit of an adjustment getting back into it for sure," Matheson said of his return. "There were some reads that that felt a little slow for me than usual. A couple plays that I saw in the execution just wasn't quite there. That'll come, that'll come with time."

• Danton Heinen's goal streak ended at three games, so he's only on pace for a 61.5-goal season. Might not be enough to win the Rocket Richard.

• In games with a high number of penalties, players and coaches often talk about it being difficult to get into the flow of the game because of all the disruptions and special teams affecting players' ice time. A game with no power play opportunities has its challenges too. The only calls in this game were matching roughing calls on Zucker and Luke Glendening to put the teams at four-on-four.

"Your top guys don't get the power play time where they're feeling the puck," Sullivan said. "Usually, special teams tends to swing momentum either way, and when you don't have it it's basically a five-on-five game most of the night. 

• It was Mike Lange Night at the arena, with fans in attendance all receiving little posters with different Lange-isms printed on them. Lange was in attendance in a suite, and received a loud, long ovation from the fans in attendance:

Video tributes played on the scoreboard throughout the night:

One of the highlights was Malkin delivering a milkshake to Lange in the suite, following up on Lange's "Make me a milkshake, Malkin!" goal call. 

"We love you," Malkin said. "Pittsburgh loves you, I love you, Russia loves you.”

Crosby did not follow up on the "Slap me silly, Sidney" goal call, though he did share some nice words:

 • Nice to see Brian Burke recognize the AHL's addition of 10 female referees and linespersons this season with this tweet before the game, after Katie Guay became the first woman to officiate an AHL game in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's opener:

• This is a power couple if I've ever seen one:

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Braden Holtby, Stars
2. Michael Raffl, Stars
3. Tristan Jarry, Penguins

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• Sidney Crosby said last Monday that he expects to miss "hopefully a week or two" more after recovering from offseason wrist surgery. He skated with Ty Hennes on Tuesday morning.

• Evgeni Malkin is expected to miss the first two months of the season while recovering from his knee surgery. He skated for the first time before Monday's practice.

• Bryan Rust left Thursday's game with an injury and is now considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury He was put on injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 14.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Jeff Carter - Danton Heinen
Jason Zucker - Evan Rodrigues - Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Brock McGinn
Drew O'Connor - Brian Boyle - Dominik Simon

Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - John Marino
Mike Matheson - Chad Ruhwedel

And for Rick Bowness' Stars:

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Alex Radulov
Michael Raffl - Radek Faksa - Joe Pavelski
Jacob Peterson - Roope Hintz - Joel Kiviranta
Tanner Kero - Luke Glendening - Denis Gurianov

Ryan Suter - Andrej Sekera
Esa Lindell - Miro Heiskanen
Joel Hanley - Jani Hakanpaa

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins will practice in Cranberry at noon on Wednesday. Their next game is Saturday at 7:08 p.m. against the Maple Leafs at PPG Paints Arena.

THE CONTENT

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